Shake table tests on clutter levels of typical medicine shelves and contents subjected to earthquakes

Overturned shelves and fallen objects scattered on floors are one of the most frequently observed forms of nonstructural damage after earthquakes. The term ‘clutter’ is adopted in this study to represent this type of damage. Clutter may cause obstructions and thus hinder the use of a room. Making a seismic evaluation of clutter is a daunting task, due to the diversity of the types of shelves and objects and the way the objects are stored. Nonetheless, in order to achieve performance‐based seismic evaluation, especially for critical facilities such as hospitals, it is reasonable to undertake the estimation of clutter when examining the association between the performance of structural and nonstructural elements. Of particular interest in this paper is clutter caused by objects stored on medicine shelves in pharmacies, which are one of the critical departments for delivering post‐earthquake emergency care. Shake table tests were conducted on three conventional types of medicine shelves. Sinusoidal waves and earthquake motions were input uniaxially. The results of the tests using the sinusoidal wave input indicated the relationship between the input excitation intensity and clutter level expressed in scattering distance from the front of the shelf. Tests using earthquake motion input were then conducted and the results were compared with those for sinusoidal waves. Based on a comparison of the results from these tests, criteria for the seismic evaluation of clutter caused by medicine shelves due to earthquakes were proposed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tomographic airborne ground penetrating radar imaging: Achievable spatial resolution and on-field assessment

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) airborne systems are gaining an increasing attention as effective monitoring tools capable of underground investigation of wide areas. With respect to this frame, the paper deals with a reconstruction approach specifically designed to image buried targets from airborne gathered scattered field data. The role of the measurement configuration is investigated in order to address the practical problem of how multi-monostatic and multi-frequency data should be gathered, in terms of synthetic aperture length and frequency range, and how the available data affect the achievable reconstruction capabilities. Such an analysis allows us to evaluate the performance of the reconstruction approach in terms of transversal and depth resolution limits. Finally, an experimental validation of the approach is performed by processing real data.     

Column-averaged CO2 concentrations in the subarctic from GOSAT retrievals and NIES transport model simulations

The distribution of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the subarctic was investigated using the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) three-dimensional transport model (TM) and retrievals from the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT). Column-averaged dry air mole fractions of subarctic atmospheric CO₂ (XCO₂) from the NIES TM for four flux combinations were analyzed. Two flux datasets were optimized using only surface observations and two others were optimized using both surface and GOSAT Level 2 data. Two inverse modeling approaches using GOSAT data were compared. In the basic approach adopted in the GOSAT Level 4 product, the GOSAT observations are aggregated into monthly means over 5° × 5° grids. In the alternative method, the model–observation misfit is estimated for each observation separately. The XCO₂ values simulated with optimized fluxes were validated against Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) ground-based high-resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) measurements. Optimized fluxes were applied to study XCO₂ seasonal variability over the period 2009–2010 in the Arctic and subarctic regions. The impact on CO₂ levels of emissions from enhancement of biospheric respiration induced by the high temperature and strong wildfires occurring in the summer of 2010 was analyzed. Use of GOSAT data has a substantial impact on estimates of the level of CO₂ interanual variability.     

Rayleigh scattering by aqueous colloidal silica as a cause for the blue color of hydrothermal water

Thermal waters in hydrothermal ponds, bathing pools and the brines of geothermal electric power plants commonly have a characteristic blue color. Although many researchers have assumed that the blue color is due to a colloidal suspension and/or absorption by dissolved ferrous iron or by water itself, there has been no specific effort to identify the physical nature of this phenomenon. We have tested, in synthetic and natural solutions, whether aqueous colloidal silica is responsible for the blue color. Aqueous colloidal silica is formed by silica polymerization in thermal waters of the neutral-chloride type which contain initially monomeric silica in concentrations up to three times above the solubilities of amorphous silica. The hue of the blue thermal waters in the pools tested agrees with that of a synthesized colloidal silica solution. Grain-size analyses of aqueous colloidal silica in the blue-colored thermal waters demonstrate that the color is caused by Rayleigh scattering from aqueous colloidal silica particles with diameters (0.1–0.45 μm) smaller than the wavelengths of visible radiation.     

基于Kjartansson模型的反Q滤波

利用Ｋｊａｒｔａｎｓｓｏｎ提出的数学模型，建立包含有衰减和频散的正演模型。从这个模型出发，推导出适合于处理非平稳地震记录的反Ｑ滤波。用该方法不仅能补偿振幅的衰减，而且还能消除频散。通过对实际资料的处理，其结果是令人满意的。最后，给出了在最佳意义下的反Ｑ滤波方法。     

根据参数反演结果分析非饱和黄土边坡破坏机理

边坡的变形破坏本质上有两方面的因素控制,(1)开挖或堆载引起斜坡内应力的重分布; (2)地表水渗入或地下水变动引起其抗剪强度的变化。大部分黄土路堑边坡位于地下水位以上,斜坡开挖以后,应力不再改变。 如果不是在人工灌溉区,其破坏大多可归结为降雨入渗引起的黄土抗剪强度的降低。对于非饱和黄土来讲,其孔隙水压力为负值,传统的Terzaghi有效应力原理不适用于Mohr-Coulomb抗剪强度公式,而Bishop的非饱和土有效应力公式中参数测定周期很长,技术还不是很成熟,目前在实际工程中应用还不现实。如何基于目前常规的测试方法,合理地确定边坡抗剪强度参数,是值得研究的问题。本文对局部发生滑坡的山西吉家塬黄土路堑51.6m高边坡,采用Bishop法反演边坡c、值; 取边坡上的黄土样,测了不同含水率试样的直接快剪强度参数。将试验结果与反演结果对比发现,含水量在接近土样塑限时的直接快剪试验结果与反演结果较为接近。塑限是土的一个状态界限指标,即固态到塑态含水量的界限值。土由固态进入塑态,土强度显著降低,此时最容易发生变形破坏,这符合土体稠度状态和强度变化的本质。因此建议在黄土边坡设计中,一般可取塑限含水量下的直接快剪强度指标作为边坡稳定性评价的指标。     

水-气界面辐射能量的方向性特征及水体透射特征研究

利用海气耦合辐射传输模型(COART)模拟粗糙表面不同观测几何的离水辐射亮度和恰水面之下上行辐射亮度,研究了离水辐射亮度的空间分布特征、恰水面之下上行辐射亮度透射系数的空间分布特征以及粗糙表面对其空间分布特征的影响。研究结果表明,恰水面之下上行、下行辐照度随入射光太阳天顶角的增加而减小,这种衰减特征与入射光太阳天顶角的余弦值呈线性关系。离水辐射亮度的空间分布特征明显且该特征不受风生粗糙表面的影响。离水辐射亮度随观测天顶角的变化规律可用天顶角的一元三次方程拟合。水平海面恰水面之下上行辐射亮度透射系数不因观测方位角的变化而变化,随观测天顶角的增加透射系数减小,并与观测天顶角正切值的平方线性相关。粗...     

超声散射CT技术发展综述

概述超声散射CT(computed tomography)理论的发展过程,分别对X射线CT技术、医学超声CT技术、无散射超声CT技术及超声衍射CT技术相关理论的发展、基本思想及优缺点进行了概述,介绍了主要用于工业超声CT检测的超声散射CT技术的基本概念,特点及意义等。散射超声CT技术不仅不需要反投影重构,而且在一定程度上弥补了线性超声CT方法由于线性假设或弱散射假设带来的不足,具有广阔的应用前景。