From soil aggregates to riverine flocs: a laboratory experiment assessing the respective effects of soil type and flow shear stress on particles characteristics

Particles eroded from hillslopes and exported to rivers are recognized to be composite particles of high internal complexity. Their architecture and composition are known to influence their transport behaviour within the water column relative to discrete particles. To‐date, hillslope erosion studies consider aggregates to be stable once they are detached from the soil matrix. However, lowland rivers and estuaries studies often suggest that particle structure and dynamics are controlled by flocculation within the water column. In order to improve the understanding of particle dynamics along the continuum from hillslopes to the lowland river environment, soil particle behaviour was tested under controlled laboratory conditions. Seven flume erosion and deposition experiments, designed to simulate a natural erosive event, and five shear cell experiments were performed using three contrasting materials: two of them were poorly developed and as such can not be considered as soils, whilst the third one was a calcareous brown soil. These experiments revealed that soil aggregates were prone to disaggregation within the water column and that flocculation may affect their size distribution during transport. Large differences in effective particle size were found between soil types during the rising limb of the bed shear stress sequence. Indeed, at the maximum applied bed shear stress, the aggregated particles median diameter was found to be three times larger for the well‐developed soil than for the two others. Differences were smaller in the falling limb, suggesting that soil aggregates underwent structural changes. However, characterization of particles strength parameters showed that these changes did not fully turn soil aggregates into flocs, but rather into hybrid soil aggregate–floc particles. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Size and spatial distribution of loess slides on the Chinese Loess Plateau

ABSTRACT

The size and spatial distribution of loess slides are important for estimating the yield of eroded materials and determining the landslide risk. While previous studies have investigated landslide size distributions, the spatial distribution pattern of landslides at different spatial scales is poorly understood. The results indicate that the loess slide distribution exhibits a power-law scaling across a range of the size distribution. The mean landslide size and size distribution in the different geomorphic types are different. The double Pareto and inverse gamma functions can coincide well with the empirical probability distribution of the loess slide areas and can quantitatively reveal the rollover location, maximum probability, and scaling exponents. The frequency of loess slides increases with mean monthly precipitation. Moreover, point distance analysis showed that > 80% of landslides are located < 3 km from other loess slides. We found that the loess slides at the two study sites (Zhidan and Luochuan County) in northern Shaanxi Province, China show a significant clustered distribution. Furthermore, analysis results of the correlated fractal dimension show that the landslides exhibit a dispersed distribution at smaller spatial scales and a clustered distribution at larger spatial scales.     

Borehole failure analysis in a sandstone under anisotropic stresses

Borehole failure under anisotropic stresses in a sandstone is analyze numerically for various borehole sizes using a nonlinear elastic–plastic constitutive model for a Cosserat continuum. Borehole failure is identified as macroscopic failure of the borehole through the development of shear bands and breakouts. The results compare well both qualitatively and quantitatively with experimental results from polyaxial tests on Red Wildmoor sandstone. They show that the hole size effect of the borehole failure strength is independent of the far‐field stress anisotropy and follows a ? power law of the hole size. A similar scale effect equation with a ? power law is proposed for the scale effect of the maximum plastic shear strain at failure. This equation can be useful for better predicting hole‐size‐dependent failure with standard codes based on classical continua. The effect of stress anisotropy on the borehole failure stress is found to be independent of the hole size. The failure stress decreases linearly to 40% as the stress anisotropy increases. However, the maximum plastic shear strain at failure is stress anisotropy independent and therefore the critical plastic shear strain for failure is only hole‐size dependent. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of stress history on the grain size and microstructure of experimentally deformed quartzite

Deformation of middle crustal shear zones likely varies with time as a result of the stress build-up and release associated with earthquakes and post-seismic deformation, but the processes involved and their microstructural signature in the rock record are poorly understood. We conducted a series of experiments on quartzite at 900 °C to characterize microstructures associated with changes in stress and strain rate, and to investigate the feasibility of carrying out grain size piezometry in natural rocks that experienced analogous changes. Differential stress (referred to simply as “stress”) was varied in two-stage experiments by changing strain rate and by stopping the motor and allowing stress to relax. The two-stage samples preserve a microstructural record that can be interpreted quantitatively in terms of stress history. The microstructure associated with a stress increase is a bimodal distribution of recrystallized grain sizes. The smaller grains associated with the second deformation stage accurately record the stress of the second stage, and the surviving coarse grains remain similar in size to those formed during the earlier stage. The transient microstructure associated with stress decrease is a “partial foam” texture containing a larger concentration of stable 120° triple junctions than occur in samples deformed at a relatively constant strain rate. Our results indicate that microstructures preserved in rocks that experienced relatively simple, two-stage deformation histories can be used to quantitatively assess stress histories.Grain growth rates during deformation are similar to rates observed in previous isostatic growth experiments, supporting theoretical approaches to recrystallized grain size, such as the wattmeter theory (Austin and Evans, 2007), that incorporate static growth rates. From an analysis of the experimental data for quartz recrystallized grain size, we find: 1) Recrystallized grain size quickly reaches a value consistent with ambient deformation conditions. We argue that this explains a good match between average grain sizes predicted by the wattmeter after complete recrystallization and the recrystallized grain sizes of the experiments. 2) The present formulation of the wattmeter overestimates the rates at which porphyroclasts recrystallize by as much as an order of magnitude, and 3) owing to problems with extrapolation of grain growth data for quartz, the wattmeter is not presently applicable to natural samples deformed at low temperatures. We present a simplified flow law for quartz, and suggest that the change in slope of the quartz piezometer at high stress (regime 1) is related to a switch to a linear viscous rheology.     

重庆城口高燕锰矿床矿物解离度与工艺粒度研究

随着当前矿产资源日趋贫、细、杂,合理利用低品位和复杂多金属矿石是目前选矿工作的重要问题（吴荣庆, 2008）,只有通过对矿物原料或产物中元素或矿物的状态和性质的系统研究,阐明其行为规律,指导和配合矿物加工研究和生产,才能有针对性地选择选矿方法和工艺流程（贾木欣, 2007）,实现对矿物资源的综合利用（吕宪俊,2001）。而矿物工艺粒度、解离度对选矿发挥着不可缺少的重要作用。矿物解离是选矿的必要条件之一,矿物工艺粒度、磨矿粒度等因素对矿物解离度都有影响,这些因素致使解离度和工艺粒度之间关系复杂化（洪秉信,傅文章., 2012）。本文通过对重庆城口高燕锰矿床矿物解离度与工艺粒度的研究,从而探讨解离度与工艺粒度对选矿加工的影响。     

辽宁地区不同降水云系雨滴谱参数及其特征量研究

利用位于辽宁省沈阳市和辽阳市的Parsivel（Particle Size and Velocity）激光雨滴谱仪观测到的雨滴谱资料按照积雨云降水系统、积层混合云降水系统和层状云降水系统分析雨滴谱特征量和谱参数的平均特征及随时间的演变特征。结果表明:Gamma分布拟合谱参数N₀和λ按照层状云、积层混合云和积雨云的顺序减小,谱参数μ按照层状云、积层混合云和积雨云的顺序增大;直径小于1 mm的降水粒子对数浓度的贡献最大,直径大于1 mm的降水粒子对雷达反射率的贡献最大;M-P分布的谱参数N₀与雨强I具有幂函数关系,并且随着雨强I的增大而增大,谱参数λ与雨强I具有指数函数关系,随着雨强I的增大而减小。     

南京周家山下蜀黄土石英颗粒特征及其物源意义

下蜀黄土的成因和物源一直是学术界研究的热点。对南京周家山下蜀黄土的石英粒度和石英表面微结构进行分析,结果显示:粉砂粒级石英颗粒（5~50 μm）占绝对优势;<20 μm组分平均含量为42.76%,<30 μm组分平均含量为62.98%;粒度分布曲线和累积曲线总体具有颗粒偏细,呈正偏态,分选较差,峰形尖锐,双峰曲线不对称的特征;粒级-标准偏差曲线呈“双峰”分布,两个明显的标准偏差峰值分别出现在7.962 1 μm和39.905 2 μm。石英颗粒表面形态主要以次棱角状为主;表面机械结构具有丰富的蝶形坑、曲脊、贝壳状断口,部分表面出现平行节理面、V形坑;不同粒级组分表面形态和机械结构特征存在差异。分析表明,南京周家山下蜀黄土属典型风成成因堆积物,是多源区物质高度混合搬运堆积的结果。     

原地栖息真菌Talaromyces flavus作用下不同粒径利蛇纹石的风化作用研究

主要研究了原地栖息真菌Talaromyces flavus作用下不同粒径的蛇纹石矿物粉末的风化作用。蛇纹石矿物粉末被筛分为不同粒度的4组(150~300、100~150、75~100和45~75μm)后进行真菌溶蚀实验,并使用p H计、ICP-OES、FTIR、XRD、SEM对反应产物进行了分析。结果表明,真菌作用显著加快了蛇纹石矿物的溶蚀,当蛇纹石矿物粒度降低到100μm左右时,Mg的溶出率从21.56%明显增加到35.91%。该现象可能与矿物比表面积的增大以及生物物理作用的增强有关。在此基础上粒径进一步减小并未使Mg溶出率明显提高,因此该粒径可以作为真菌对蛇纹石溶解工业化应用的最优粒径。扫描电镜观察与矿物相分析表明,反应过程中真菌分化产生的菌丝与矿物紧密接触,破坏了矿物的晶体结构,导致矿物相的改变。该研究结果可为相关菌种在浸矿等工业领域上的应用提供参考依据。     

内蒙古达来诺尔湖湖泊沉积物中敏感粒度组分沉积环境及地层分析

对达来诺尔湖北岸岸边(DL-0)、湖中心(DL-1)和湖南岸(DL-2)3个点的岩心沉积物进行了详细的岩性分析、粒度分析和粒度参数垂向分布序列分析。对沉积环境变化较为敏感的粒度组分的分析发现DL-0与DL-1和DL-2井岩心沉积物敏感粒度组分的峰值有较大差别,其粒度分布范围相差较大,表明湖北岸岸边、湖中心和湖南岸的沉积物来源和沉积环境的时空差异。敏感粒度组分含量随深度变化的初步分析表明,湖北岸岸边(DL-0)和湖中心(DL-1)两个点的沉积环境较为稳定;而位于湖南岸(DL-2)点的沉积环境变化比较大,包含了5个明显的沉积波动旋回,并对达来诺尔湖由北至南进行了沉积地层分析。在达来诺尔湖水下1.5m内主要是粒径0~200μm的颗粒,岩性为粘土、粉砂和砂,以粘土和粉砂为主,随着深度的增加,黏土含量增大,粉砂和砂含量减小。