Floating and fixed artificial habitats: Spatial and temporal patterns of benthic communities in a coral reef environment

While natural marine habitats with motion capabilities, e.g., kelps and seaweeds, have been studied alongside their associated fouling communities, little is known of the effect of motion on the communities of floating artificial habitats such as buoys, rafts, and pontoons, particularly in tropical systems. Hydrodynamic features greatly differ between floating and fixed artificial substrata, which in turn affect the structure of their associated communities. This study tested the hypothesis that floating and fixed artificial installations in a tropical reef system (Eilat, Red Sea) would support different benthic communities throughout space and time. Specifically, we examined differences in communities recruited onto settlement plates between floating and fixed installations deployed at three different sites, along a two-year monitoring period. The three sites exhibited distinct differences in species assemblages between the monitoring dates (6, 12, 18 and 24 months post deployment), mainly between the first and the last two dates. The average level of dissimilarity between floating and fixed installations increased over time at all sites. Over 50% of the dissimilarity between the floating and fixed installations resulted from five taxonomic groups i.e., bryozoans, bivalves, barnacles, sponges, including the amount of bare space on the settlement plates. The contribution of these groups to the dissimilarity changed both temporally within each site, and spatially among sites. The observed differences were related to the hydrodynamic characteristics of floating and fixed habitats, interacting with biotic features such as predation, successional processes and seasonality; and abiotic features including small-scale spatial changes, light, and position in the water column.     

Experimental investigation on a cabin-suspended catamaran in terms of motion reduction and wave energy harvesting by means of a semi-active motion control system

A novel concept catamaran equipped with a suspended cabin, named Wave Harmonizer Type 4 (WHzer-4), is proposed and evaluated. The mass-spring-mass system is constructed by mounting four sets of suspensions in-between the cabin and the twin-hull. Two sets of dual motor/generators (M/Gs) are attached on the center beam of the cabin's deck fore and aft. Each shaft-end of the dual M/Gs is connected to the twin-hull through a rack-pinion gear unit. In this way the vertical relative motion between the cabin and the twin-hull can be transferred into the rotational motion of the M/Gs, and vice versa. A semi-active motion control system, which contains a proportional-integral (PI) controller, is designed and applied to each of the dual M/Gs for the aim of absorbing wave energy under the condition of suppressing the local vertical velocity of the cabin as much as possible. A 1/5 scale model ship with a length of 1.6 m is built, and a forced-oscillation bench test is implemented to validate the performance of the control system. Then, a series of towing tank tests is carried out in regular head waves. The heave and pitch responses of the cabin, those of the twin-hull and the corresponding wave energy capture width ratio (CWR) at five control scenarios and two reference scenarios are investigated. Discussion on the results of the tank test shows that the motion reduction of the cabin and the wave energy harvesting can be achieved simultaneously at a few wave conditions. However, at other conditions, although noticeable amount of wave energy is harvested, motion reduction of the heave and pitch of the cabin could not be obtained at the same time. It is suggested that varying the gain settings of the PI controllers according to the location of the controllers may improve the effectiveness of the proposed control system.     

Influence of long‐period filter cut‐off on elastic spectral displacements

The effect of the long‐period filter cut‐off, T_c, on elastic spectral displacements is investigated using a strong ground‐motion database from Europe and the Middle East. The relation between the filter and oscillator responses is considered to observe the influence of T_c for both analogue and digital records, and the variations with site classification, magnitude, filter order and viscous damping. Robust statistics are derived using the re‐processed European data to generalize the effects of the long‐period filter cut‐off on maximum oscillator deformation demands as a function of these seismological and structural features. Statistics with a 95% confidence interval are derived to suggest usable period ranges for spectral displacement computations as a function of T_c. The results indicate that the maximum period at which spectral displacements can be confidently calculated depend strongly on the site class, magnitude and filter order. The period range where reliable long‐period information can be extracted from digital accelerograms is twice that of analogue records. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mean and eddy motion in the Skagerrak/northern North Sea: insight from a numerical model

Insight regarding the mean and eddy motion in the Skagerrak/northern North Sea area is gained through an analysis of model-simulated currents, hydrography, kinetic energy and relative vorticity for the 2 years 2000 and 2001. In this a -coordinate ocean model is used. Since the tidal currents are generally strong in the area, care is exercised to distinguish the mesoscale (eddy) motion from higher-frequency motion such as tides, before computing the mean and eddy kinetic energy. The model-simulated response is first compared with available knowledge of the circulation in the area, and when available, also with sea-surface temperature obtained from satellite imagery. It is concluded that the model appears to faithfully reproduce most of what is known, in particularly the upper mixed layer circulation. An analysis of the mean and eddy kinetic energy reveals that many of the mesoscale structures found in the area are recurrent. This is particularly true for the structures off the southern tip of Norway. Also in general, areas of strong mean and eddy kinetic energy are co-located. The exception is the area off the southern tip of Norway, where the eddy kinetic energy is much larger than its mean counterpart. An analysis of the relative vorticity reveals that the variability found is due to the occurrence of recurrent anticyclonic eddies. It is hypothesized that these eddies are generated due to an offshore veering of the Norwegian coastal current (NCC) as it reaches the eastern end of the Norwegian Trench plateau. Here it becomes a free jet, which is then vulnerable to either barotropic instability caused by the horizontal shear in the jet-like structure of the NCC at this point, or a baroclinic (frontal) instability. The latter may come into play when the NCC veers offshore and its relatively fresh water meets the inflowing saline water of Atlantic origin, a frontogenesis that may become strong enough for cyclogenesis to take place. Due to the depth-independent nature of the model-generated eddies, the barotropic instability is the most likely candidate. It remains to resolve the reason for the offshore veering of the NCC. The most likely candidate mechanisms are vortex squeezing or simply that the coastline curvature is large enough for the NCC to separate from the coast in a hydraulic sense.Responsible Editor: Phil Dyke     

A study of design spectra based on attenuation relationship of ground motion

In recent years, more and more studies are focused on the performance in seismic design instead of the strength of structures. People have realized that the structure deformation (displacement) can describe the damage more properly and directly than the strength (force). The displacement design spectra need to be constructed within more wide range of the period and the damping for the displacement-based seismic design.     

The effect of local irregular topography on seismic ground motion

Ｔｈｅｅｆｆｅｃｔｏｆｌｏｃａｌｉｒｒｅｇｕｌａｒｔｏｐｏｇｒａｐｈｙｏｎｓｅｉｓｍｉｃ　ｇｒｏｕｎｄ　ｍｏｔｉｏｎＪＩＧ－ｈｏＬＩＵ（刘晶波）（ＤｅｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔｏｆＣｉｖｉｌＥｎｇｉｎｅｅｒｉｎｇ，ＴｓｉｎｇｈｕａＵｎｉｖｅｒｓｉｔｙＢｅｉｊｉ...     

���տ������山��Ե��Ҫ�����ֽ��Է���

????GPS??????????????山???????α????????????????????????????о??????????????о?????????????????????????????????????????С??????????????о???????????????????????????????-???????????????-?????????????????????????????????-?????????????????????????????-??????????-?????????????????????????????????     

最不利设计地震动研究

实际记录到的真实地震动在工程结构的抗震研究、分析和设计中往往作为一种施加到结构上使结构振动，直至破坏的地震荷载．如何合理选择真实的地震动记录作为研究结构地震反应的输入，一直是国内外抗震研究和设计中引人关注的重要问题．本文首先提出了最不利设计地震动的概念；然后在收集到的国内外5000余条被认为有重要意义的地震动记录基础上，利用综合估计地震动潜在破坏势的方法，对４种场地类型分别给出了长周期、短周期和中周期结构的国内外最不利设计地震动；最后通过几类不同结构的地震反应分析，初步验证了本文所确定的最不利设计地震动的可靠性和合理性．      

The Unique Binary Star α Coronae Borealis

We present a new photoelectric light curve of α Coronae Borealis. The derived rate of apsidal motion differs from the theoretical prediction. A possible solution of the problem is suggested.     

利用重叠加窗方式恢复地面运动

在频率域,利用地震记录反卷积恢复地面运动,由于FFT运算导致的谱泄漏与系统传递函数对高频与低频的放大效果会导致地面运动恢复失败,本研究采用重叠加窗方式,可避免单一加窗的时域失真,并减小频域谱泄漏。结果表明,恢复地面运动取得了较好效果。