Constitutive model for soft rocks considering structural healing and decay

The behavior of soft rock depends on the contact area between mineral particles and the tensile strength of the interparticle cementation, which are usually referred to as structures. We investigated the effects of structural decay and healing on the behavior of soft rock through monotonic and slide-hold-slide triaxial tests under the drained condition with constant effective confining pressure. We developed a constitutive model for soft rocks incorporating structural healing and decay in the context of the extended critical state theory. The model was validated via laboratory tests and captured the behavior of soft rock, including the healing and decay phenomena.     

Can Marine Protected Areas be developed effectively without baseline data? A case study for Burrunan dolphins (Tursiops australis)

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly used to protect marine mammals from anthropogenic threats despite limited studies that assess their efficacy. The small population of Burrunan dolphins (Tursiops australis) that inhabit Port Phillip Bay (PPB), Australia, are genetically isolated, listed as threatened and are exposed to dolphin-swim tourism. This study aimed to identify areas within PPB where dolphins are most likely to rest, forage and socialise, and whether these behaviours occur frequently within Ticonderoga Bay Sanctuary Zone (TBSZ), the only protected area designated for dolphins within PPB. Here, a comprehensive activity budget for Burrunan dolphins was established and critical habitat identified. Behavioural data were collected from 51 independent dolphin groups during 67 boat-based surveys conducted in southern PPB between December 2009 and May 2013. Travel (63.9%) and rest (1.8%) were the most and least frequently observed behaviours, respectively. Forage (16.4%), mill (10.8%) and social (7.2%) accounted for the remainder of the activity budget. Results indicate that the broader PPB region is important for foraging, socialising and nursing dolphins, while TBSZ has proven importance for foraging dolphins. Thus, the implementation of TBSZ was a correct management decision and MPAs developed without baseline data can be effective for marine mammal conservation. Three candidate MPAs were objectively identified in areas that are hotspots for foraging and socialising Burrunan dolphins in southern PPB. The findings of this study will be used to inform current conservation management strategies. If implemented, the aim of the proposed MPAs will be to reduce impacts from anthropogenic disturbance, namely dolphin-swim tour vessels.     

Costly stakeholder participation creates inertia in marine ecosystems

Ecosystems often shift abruptly and dramatically between different regimes in response to human or natural disturbances. When ecosystems tip from one regime to another, the suite of available ecosystem benefits changes, impacting the stakeholders who rely on these benefits. These changes often create some groups who stand to incur large losses if an ecosystem returns to a previous regime. When the participation cost in the decision-making process is extremely high, this can “lock in” ecosystem regimes, making it harder for policy and management to shift ecosystems out of what the majority of society views as the undesirable regime. Public stakeholder meetings often have high costs of participation, thus economic theory predicts they will be dominated by extreme views and often lead to decisions that do not represent the majority viewpoint. Such extreme viewpoints can create strong inertia even when there is broad consensus to manage an ecosystem towards a different regime. In the same manner that reinforcing ecological feedback loops make it harder to exit an ecosystem regime, there are decision-making feedback loops that contribute additional inertia.     

A steady nonlinear and singular vortex Rossby wave within a rapidly rotating vortex. Part II: Application to geophysical vortices

In a previous paper, Caillol [Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dyn., 2014, 108] investigated the steady nonlinear vortical structure of a singular vortex Rossby mode that has survived to a strong critical-layer-like interaction with a linearly stable, columnar, axisymmetric and dry vortex. We presented a general theory for this wave/mean flow interaction through the nonlinear critical layer theory and calculated the mean azimuthal and axial winds induced at the critical radius at the end of this interaction in the final stage. We here apply that theory to rapidly rotating geophysical vortices: tropical cyclones, cold-air mesocyclones and tornadoes. We find that the numerous assumptions invoked in that paper agree well with the reality of those intense vortices. We also find that in spite of a lack of moist-convection modelling, this dry vortex is fairly well accelerated at the critical radius by such a shear wave with a magnitude of order the square root of the damped-wave amplitude. The intensification level strongly depends on the aspect ratio, height of the system: rapid vortex and parent vortex, over core radius. The thinner the vortex is, the sharper the intensification is. This result is in sharp contrast to the numerous numerical simulations on VR wave/vortex interactions that yield a much smaller intensification of order the square of the wave amplitude. This weakly nonlinear approach nevertheless fails to model small vertical wavelength VR wave/vortex interactions for their related asymptotic expansions are divergent and for they yield strongly nonlinear VR waves coupled with evolving critical layers whose extent can no longer be considered as thin.     

Walter Benjamin’s Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth

This paper argues, following Friedrich Nietzsche, that recent evaluations of Google Earth uncritically privilege the product’s Apollonian determinations at the expense of its Dionysian uncertainties. Specifically, when we understand Google Earth as a virtual globe composed of surveyed panoramas, sober rationalization, dystopic control, and transparent order – or, even, as a tool for participation and empowerment – we undersell its capacities as an alluring digital peep-box, an uncertain orb spangled with vertiginous paranoia, frenzied navigation, jubilatory dissolution, and intoxicating giddiness. We argue that the former interpretations not only risk foreclosing our theorizations about how Google Earth is actually used in various ways and different contexts, they also reproduce a one-dimensional and conservative reading of technology that can be traced back (at least) to the writings of Theodor Adorno. By drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin (Adorno’s critic and pen pal for more than a decade) we aim to ‘go beyond Apollo and Adorno’ by illustrating the extent to which Apollonian order and Dionysian love makes Google Earth go round. To do this, we examine Google Earth as a “digital peep-box” with an online collective that revels in its “Spot the Black Helicopter” competitions; illuminated profanities; alien and giant insect invaders; naked sunbathers; and crashed transport planes in Darfur.     

饱和土沉积谷场地对平面SV波的散射问题的解析解

把波函数展开方法用于饱和多孔介质中波的传播的研究中,给出了不同土层界面条件（透水条件和不透水条件）下具有饱和土沉积层的圆弧形沉积河谷场地对平面SV波散射问题的解析解. 其中沉积谷软土场地用饱和多孔介质的Biot动力学理论模拟,半空间场地用单相介质弹性动力理论模拟. 对于入射角大于临界入射角时,产生的面波的波函数用有限Fourier级数展开,这种方法适用于较大的入射波频率范围,这是现存的数值方法所不能比拟的一大优点. 文中算例分析了入射波频率和入射角对地震地面运动的影响.     

江汉平原地球关键带监测网建设进展

地球关键带是地球科学领域的热点研究主题,我国地球关键带研究尚处于起步阶段,如何形成符合我国实情的地球关键带调查与研究范式,仍需进一步探索。江汉平原地处长江中游,是长江经济带的重要组成部分之一,其主要特点在于受不同级次水利工程的强烈影响。基于多年调查研究,在江汉平原建立了一套较为完善的地球关键带监测网络,涉及水、土、气、生物等各地球关键带要素。监测网络设置上,既考虑了不同级次水利工程的影响,也考虑了区域营养元素/重金属的富集特征; 监测技术上,部分指标实现了原位监测,大部分指标实现了野外现场测试,未来将进一步加强在线监测并实现数据远程传输。目前,江汉平原地球关键带监测网已成功纳入全球地球关键带研究网络,这是我国地球关键带调查与研究的初步探索,不仅可为长江流域的地球关键带调查研究提供示范,也可为长江大保护战略提供有力的理论与方法支撑。     

Studies on critical Reynolds number indices for wind-tunnel experiments on flow within urban areas

Reynolds-number dependence of flow fields within a modelled urban area was studied in a wind tunnel. We measured flow around a single model building and around model city blocks at various wind speeds, and studied Reynolds number indices more appropriate than the building Reynolds number. Our results led to the following conclusions. Firstly, the flow around the models in the wind tunnel was roughly divided into three parts according to the intensities of viscous stress and Reynolds stress as follows: (1) the flow in the vicinity of the ground or the surfaces of the model, where viscous stress became dominant under certain conditions; (2) the flow detached from the surfaces of the model, where Reynolds stress was always dominant; and (3) the flow around the separation bubble at the leading edge of the building model, where the influences of both viscous stress near the wall and the Reynolds stress in the separated boundary layer were mixed.Secondly, the critical Reynolds number of the flow in the modelled urban area could be defined by using both the roughness Reynolds number Re_z0 (= z₀u_*/) and the dimensionless height z₊ (= zu_*/). Reynolds-number independence could be expected for whole flow fields in the modelled urban areas as long as the critical values of Re_z0 and z₊ were satisfied.     

软岩力学特性研究

本文讨论了软岩的基本特性。根据软岩的膨胀崩解耐久性、冻融作用、力学性质试验结果、, 分析软岩力学特性与赋存环境(含水量、地应力、温度)和时间的关系。总结了软岩的力学性质变化特征。并提出软岩强度取值原则。     

Verification of critical cyclic strength curve by Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake data

In this paper, known simplified methods for the assessment of soil liquefaction are summarized. Their discrepancies are examined. Using the Chi-Chi earthquake data as well as other reported data, a set of three critical cyclic strength curves were obtained by finding the minimum of misclassified points. The functional forms of these three curves are an exponential function, a hyperbola, and a cubic polynomial. A lower bound critical cyclic strength curve is then established. This curve may have important applications in practice for liquefaction-related designs. Through this case study, it was found that a minimum cyclic strength CSR_lim may exist at a very low value of (N₁)₆₀. An upper limit (N₁)₆₀^upp also exists beyond which liquefaction may not occur. Furthermore, current simplified methods seem suitable only for a limited range of N values and fines content, and may fail for general applications. The lower bound curve proposed in this paper may provide an alternative approach for improvement. Since the explicit functional form and the statistical indices are available, the statistically regressed curves seem to have a benefit in that it may be used directly to conduct hazard analysis, and evaluate the uncertainty within the critical cyclic strength curves.