抗液化排水刚性桩沉桩过程的土压力响应

抗液化排水刚性桩是一种将刚性桩与竖向排水体相结合的新桩型。基于某建筑桩基工程,开展了抗液化排水刚性桩和不含排水体的普通刚性桩的沉桩对比现场试验,采用了动态土压力传感器实时监测沉桩过程中桩周土体内产生的土压力响应,对比了排水桩与普通桩沉桩对桩周土体水平方向应力及有效应力影响的差异。试验结果表明：抗液化排水刚性桩能够有效减小沉桩过程对桩周深部可液化土体的扰动,在桩身近侧（距桩心0.6 m）深部埋深（-15 m）位置,排水桩的水平土压力响应峰值仅为普通桩的1/4;排水桩能够有效降低沉桩对可液化土层有效应力的影响,使桩周土体更加稳定;在单次沉桩过程中,对于浅部埋深（-5 m）,排水桩对桩周土压力峰值的影响作用较小,对于存在可液化土层的深部埋深（-10、-15 m）,排水桩对土压力峰值的有效影响半径可达4倍桩径。现场试验数据为抗液化排水刚性桩的桩间距选择提供了有力的设计参考依据。     

考虑钙质砂细观颗粒形状影响的液体拖曳力系数试验

钙质砂作为南海岛礁填筑常用的岩土材料,其渗透性很大程度上决定着填筑后土体的固结和沉降。拖曳力系数是表达流体对土体颗粒表面力的参数,也是表征颗粒状土体渗透能力的一个重要参数,目前国内外对钙质砂拖曳力系数的研究十分有限。首先引入一个修正的三维参数 对钙质砂这种天然非规则颗粒材料的形状进行定量描述,然后开展一系列单个钙质砂颗粒在液体中沉降试验,利用高速相机记录颗粒沉降过程,结合图像处理技术获得颗粒沉降平衡速度Ut,进而计算出拖曳力系数CD和雷诺数Re,最后拟合出包含CD、Re及 三个参数的钙质砂拖曳力系数半经验模型。结果发现,在相同雷诺数条件下钙质砂的形状系数 越大,拖曳力系数越小。通过与其他研究结果对比发现,其表面微孔隙越发育,拖曳力系数越小的规律。该模型能够考虑不规则颗粒形状对拖曳力系数的影响,从而提高对土体渗透性预测的精度,对南海岛礁填筑工程中钙质砂固结和沉降的计算也具有重要意义。     

基于自适应加权广义逆矢量方向滤波估计地震同相轴倾角

在断层等不连续位置处估计局部地震同相轴的方向较为困难。在断层、地质边界等处,同相轴不连续,结构不稳定,导致倾角等地震属性变化大。为了克服这个问题,本文提出一种自适应加权广义逆矢量方向滤波方法,通过光滑经过逆转的梯度矢量场来估计局部地震倾角剖面。计算过程是：首先由改进的梯度算子计算梯度矢量场;然后设置垂直向下为参考方向,对梯度矢量场进行逆转;最后通过自适应加权广义逆矢量方向滤波方法估计倾角剖面。自适应加权广义逆矢量方向滤波方法在不连续位置处具有传统倾角估计方法不具有的高分辨率,能够稳健高效地估计地震数据的倾角剖面。理论模型和实际地震资料处理得到的局部地震倾角剖面表明,所提出的方法能够高分辨率地保持构造细节信息。     

Application of smoothed particle hydrodynamics for modeling the wave-moored floating breakwater interaction

The application of a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) model to simulate the nonlinear interaction between waves and a moored floating breakwater is presented. The main aim is to predict and validate the response of the moored floating structure under the action of periodic waves. The Euler equations together with an artificial viscosity are used as the governing equations to describe the flow field. The motion of the moored floating body is described using the Newton’s second law of motion. The interactions between the waves and structures are modeled by setting a series of SPH particles on the boundary of the structure. The hydrodynamic forces acting on the floating body are evaluated by summing up the interacting forces on the boundary particles from the neighboring fluid particles. The water surface elevations, the movements of the floating body and the moored forces are all calculated and compared with the available experimental data. Good agreements are obtained for the dynamic response and hydrodynamic performance of the floating body. The numerical results of different immersion depths of the floating body are compared with that of the corresponding fixed body. The effects of the relative length and the density of the structure on the performance of the floating body are analyzed.     

Pressure significance of gas chimneys

Analysis was carried out of part of the northern North Sea to test what the presence and style of gas chimneys indicate about fluid pressure (P_f) within hydrocarbon reservoirs. Previous results suggest that broad chimneys above a trap and thin chimneys on the flanks indicate the presence of hydrocarbons, whilst thin chimneys in the crest suggest the hydrocarbons have escaped. Each type of gas chimney is usually associated with overpressure within Mesozoic reservoirs, but the water leg is hydrostatically-pressured in most Cenozoic reservoirs. This indicates: (a) gas leaking from a trap does not necessarily cause P_f to become hydrostatic; (b) overpressure may not be necessary for the expulsion of gasses through seal units to create the chimneys; (c) although gas chimneys indicate the existence of an active hydrocarbon system, their presence does not appear to indicate anything significant about present-day P_f.     

Performance investigation of a two-raft-type wave energy converter with hydraulic power take-off unit

Raft-type wave energy converter (WEC) is a multi-mode wave energy conversion device, using the relative pitch motion to drive its hydraulic power take-off (PTO) units for capturing energy from the ocean waves. The hydraulic PTO unit as its energy conversion module plays a significant role in storing large qualities of energy and making the output power smooth. However, most of the previous investigations on the raft-type WECs treat the hydraulic PTO unit as a linear PTO unit and do not consider the dynamics of the hydraulic circuit and components in their investigations. This paper is related to a two-raft-type WEC consisting of two hinged rafts and a hydraulic PTO unit. The aim of this paper is to make an understanding of the dynamics of the hydraulic PTO unit and how these affect the performance of the two-raft-type WEC. Therefore, a combined hydrodynamic and hydraulic PTO unit model is proposed to investigate and optimize the performance of the two-raft-type WEC; and based on the simulation of the combined model, the relationships between the optimal power capture ability, the optimal magnitude of the hydraulic PTO force and the wave states are numerically revealed. Results show that an approximately square wave type hydraulic PTO force is produced by the hydraulic PTO unit, which causes the performance of the two-raft-type WEC not to be sinusoidal and the energy capturing manner different from that of the device using a linear PTO unit; moreover, there is an optimal magnitude of the hydraulic PTO force for obtaining an optimal power capture ability, which can be achieved by adjusting the parameters of the hydraulic PTO unit; in regular waves, the optimal power capture ability as well as the optimal magnitude of the hydraulic PTO force normalized by the wave height presents little relationship with the wave height, mainly depends on the wave period; in irregular waves, the trends of the optimal power capture ability and the normalized optimal magnitude of the hydraulic PTO force against the peak wave periods at different significant wave heights are generally identical and show a good correlation. All means that the hydraulic PTO unit of the two-raft-type WEC can be tuned to the wave states, and these would provide a valuable guidance for the optimal design of its hydraulic PTO unit.     

Numerical simulation of longitudinal settlement of shield tunnel in the coastal city Shanghai

Until now more than 14 subway lines are in operation and some new lines are being built in the coastal city Shanghai. The longitudinal settlement of shield tunnel has significant effect on the safety of the subway operation. In this paper, the deformation of the shield tunnel and the surrounding soil were analyzed by the establishment of a three-dimensional model. The vertical displacements of four paths (Path 1 is on the ground; Path 2 is at the top of the tunnel; Path 3 is in the middle of the tunnel; Path 4 is at the bottom of the tunnel) are affected by the nature of the soil. The horizontal displacement is smaller than the vertical displacement and horizontal displacement of the clay is larger than that of the sand. The distribution of the pore pressure changes with soil properties around the tunnel. The pore pressure of the sand layer is larger than that of the clay layer at the same depth of underlying soil.     

Multi-stakeholder collaboration yields valuable data for cetacean conservation in Gamba,Gabon

Private industry, the Government of Gabon and two international NGOs collaborated to conduct marine surveys off the coast of Gabon, Central Africa. Surveys addressed multiple objectives of surveillance and monitoring, the documentation of the distribution of and threats to the marine megafauna, and capacity-building among government agents and local early-career scientists. During 22 days of survey effort over a two-year period, observers documented humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae, bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus, Atlantic humpback dolphins Sousa teuszii and common dolphins Delphinus delphis. Humpback whale presence was limited to the months of July to November. Bottlenose dolphins were present year-round and photo-identification of individuals indicated a closed, resident population, with an abundance estimate of 118 (CV = 21.6%, 95% CI 78–180). Small open-decked fishing vessels with gillnets were observed concentrated around river mouths within 2 km of shore, while commercial trawlers were at least 10 km offshore; all were confirmed to be registered and legal. Observations of marine turtles, flocks of marine birds, and floating logs and other debris were sparse. This multi-stakeholder collaboration to conduct a marine survey can serve as an effective model by which funding and logistic support from private industry paired with technical expertise from NGOs and academic institutions can benefit marine and coastal conservation.     

Assessment of Terrestrial Ecosystem Sensitivity and Vulnerability in Tibet

The Tibetan Plateau serves an important shelter function for the ecological security of Asia, and especially China. Here, we proposed and improved indicators and methods for assessing the ecological sensitivity and vulnerability of the terrestrial alpine Plateau ecosystems and assessed the freeze-thaw erosion, land desertification, water-caused soil loss, and land salinization sensitivity, together with ecological vulnerability, from the overall ecological sensitivity, ecological pressure, and elasticity aspects in Tibet. The results indicate that the terrestrial ecosystem of Tibet is quite sensitive to freeze-thaw erosion, land desertification and water-caused soil loss. Extremely and highly sensitive regions account for 9.62% and 83.69%, respectively, of the total area of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Extremely and highly vulnerable areas account for 0.09% and 52.61%, respectively, primarily distributed in the Himalayan and Gangdise mountain regions in west Tibet; the Nyainqentanglha, Tanggula, Hoh Xil, and Kunlun mountain regions; and the northwest and northern regions of the Changtang Plateau. The results will aid the development of customized protection schedules according to different ecological issues in each region.     

Local gravity field modeling using spherical radial basis functions and a genetic algorithm

Spherical Radial Basis Functions (SRBFs) can express the local gravity field model of the Earth if they are parameterized optimally on or below the Bjerhammar sphere. This parameterization is generally defined as the shape of the base functions, their number, center locations, bandwidths, and scale coefficients. The number/location and bandwidths of the base functions are the most important parameters for accurately representing the gravity field; once they are determined, the scale coefficients can then be computed accordingly. In this study, the point-mass kernel, as the simplest shape of SRBFs, is chosen to evaluate the synthesized free-air gravity anomalies over the rough area in Auvergne and GNSS/Leveling points (synthetic height anomalies) are used to validate the results. A two-step automatic approach is proposed to determine the optimum distribution of the base functions. First, the location of the base functions and their bandwidths are found using the genetic algorithm; second, the conjugate gradient least squares method is employed to estimate the scale coefficients. The proposed methodology shows promising results. On the one hand, when using the genetic algorithm, the base functions do not need to be set to a regular grid and they can move according to the roughness of topography. In this way, the models meet the desired accuracy with a low number of base functions. On the other hand, the conjugate gradient method removes the bias between derived quasigeoid heights from the model and from the GNSS/leveling points; this means there is no need for a corrector surface. The numerical test on the area of interest revealed an RMS of 0.48 mGal for the differences between predicted and observed gravity anomalies, and a corresponding 9 cm for the differences in GNSS/leveling points.