Ocean/ice shelf interaction in the southern Weddell Sea: results of a regional numerical helium/neon simulation

Ocean/ice interaction at the base of deep-drafted Antarctic ice shelves modifies the physical properties of inflowing shelf waters to become Ice Shelf Water (ISW). In contrast to the conditions at the atmosphere/ocean interface, the increased hydrostatic pressure at the glacial base causes gases embedded in the ice to dissolve completely after being released by melting. Helium and neon, with an extremely low solubility, are saturated in glacial meltwater by more than 1000%. At the continental slope in front of the large Antarctic caverns, ISW mixes with ambient waters to form different precursors of Antarctic Bottom Water. A regional ocean circulation model, which uses an explicit formulation of the ocean/ice shelf interaction to describe for the first time the input of noble gases to the Southern Ocean, is presented. The results reveal a long-term variability of the basal mass loss solely controlled by the interaction between waters of the continental shelf and the ice shelf cavern. Modeled helium and neon supersaturations from the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf front show a “low-pass” filtering of the inflowing signal due to cavern processes. On circumpolar scales, the simulated helium and neon distributions allow us to quantify the ISW contribution to bottom water, which spreads with the coastal current connecting the major formation sites in Ross and Weddell Seas.

Multi-resolution adaptive modeling of groundwater flow and transport problems

Many groundwater flow and transport problems, especially those with sharp fronts, narrow transition zones, layers and fingers, require extensive computational resources. In this paper, we present a novel multi-resolution adaptive Fup approach to solve the above mentioned problems. Our numerical procedure is the Adaptive Fup Collocation Method (AFCM), based on Fup basis functions and designed through a method of lines (MOL). Fup basis functions are localized and infinitely differentiable functions with compact support and are related to more standard choices such as splines or wavelets. This method enables the adaptive multi-resolution approach to solve problems with different spatial and temporal scales with a desired level of accuracy using the entire family of Fup basis functions. In addition, the utilized collocation algorithm enables the mesh free approach with consistent velocity approximation and flux continuity due to properties of the Fup basis functions. The introduced numerical procedure was tested and verified by a few characteristic groundwater flow and transport problems, the Buckley–Leverett multiphase flow problem, the 1-D vertical density driven problem and the standard 2-D seawater intrusion benchmark–Henry problem. The results demonstrate that the method is robust and efficient particularly when describing sharp fronts and narrow transition zones changing in space and time.     

抽水作用下先期断裂对地裂缝的影响研究

过度抽取地下水和先期存在的断裂构造是西安市地裂缝地质灾害发生的主要原因。作者首先从理论上分析了抽水情况下地裂缝形成的张拉破裂机制、剪切破裂机制和张剪复合破裂机制,并从结构面控制理论分析了先期断裂在地裂缝形成中的控制作用;然后依据比奥三维固结理论,采用FLAC软件建立了西安地裂缝的计算模型,比较了抽水作用时没有先期断裂和地层差异、有先期断裂而没有地层差异、有地层差异而无先期断裂等情况时的地面变形特征,得出抽水作用下,先期断裂对地裂缝的形成及发展具有诱导、隔离和放大的耦合作用,从而得出先期断裂不仅仅只是地裂缝形成的构造基础的结论。     

堆载下单桩负摩阻力工作性状非线性数值分析

利用三维非线性数值方法对一算例在堆载作用下桩侧负摩阻力进行了计算分析。计算结果揭示了摩擦型、端承型桩负摩阻力工作性状的异同;分析了堆载速度、桩顶荷载对负摩阻力的影响:堆载越快,负摩阻力越小;在无桩顶荷载作用下,由负摩阻力引起的下拉荷载最大,可视为常规方法设计的上限值;桩顶荷载与堆载施工顺序对负摩阻力的影响也很大,先施加桩顶荷载,后进行堆载所产生的负摩阻力最大,反之最小。     

黄河黑山峡大柳树坝坝址岩体渗漏量及灌浆量数值模拟研究

大坝坝址岩体的渗漏研究对于大坝的安全运营至关重要。在进行渗漏治理的措施中,灌浆是常见的一种,但目前确定灌浆的各项参数,如配合比,孔距等,需通过灌浆试验花费大量的人财物力及时间才能确定。为快速查清每一种灌浆方案所灌浆量,本文针对模拟坝址水库渗漏灌浆效果的三维数值模拟开展了计算研究。在对大柳树坝坝址岩体地质情况及渗漏情况分析的基础上,将蓄水前的地下水运移规律模拟出,与实际通过钻孔平硐资料及分析得出的实际地下水运移规律做比较,验证对地下水运移规律的假设;然后将蓄水后的地下水运移规律模拟出,确定地下水的运移规律,了解地下水运移的方向,验证与根据实际情况初步判断的地下水运移方向是否吻合;最后通过数值模拟确定在一定灌浆浆液配合比的情况下所需灌浆量与实际的灌浆试验结果做比较。得出结果与实际灌浆试验结果吻合,证明通过数值模拟,建立浆液配合比与灌浆效果之间的关系,在类似情况快速地选取配合比是可行的。     

Numerical analysis on post-grouted drilled shafts: A case study at the Brazo River Bridge,TX

This paper investigates the effects of post-grouting on the behavior of drilled shafts using a case study carried out at the Brazo River, Texas. Commercial finite element software, PLAXIS, was used to quantify the improvement of the tip resistance and side shear resistance of post-grouted drilled shafts (PGDS). The input material parameters of PLAXIS were initially estimated using CPT sounding results, and then the parameters were updated by calibrating the numerical results against full-scale STATNAMIC load test results. Based on the numerical analysis, the authors concluded that (1) the increase in total resistance of PGDS resulted from soil improvement at the shaft tip, (2) the apparent increase in side shear resistance resulted from side shear reversal that occurred during post-grouting, and (3) the apparent increase in the tip resistance of PGDS may be caused by stress relief of the grout. In addition, two approaches to estimate the resistance of PGDS were compared against numerical results. In this case study, the Axial Capacity Multiplier (ACM) approach over-predicted the total resistance whereas the Tip Capacity Multiplier (TCM) approach reasonably predicted the increase in total resistance.     

Numerical estimation of effective diffusion coefficients for charged porous materials based on micro-scale analyses

In order to describe diffusive transport of solutes through a porous material, estimation of effective diffusion coefficients is required. It has been shown theoretically that in the case of uncharged porous materials the effective diffusion coefficient of solutes is a function of the pore morphology of the material and can be described by the tortuosity (tensor) (Bear, 1988 [1]). Given detailed information of the pore geometry at the micro-scale the tortuosity of different materials can be accurately estimated using homogenization procedures. However, many engineering materials (e.g., clays and shales) are characterized by electrical surface charges on particles of the porous material which strongly affect the (diffusive) transport properties of ions. For these type of materials, estimation of effective diffusion coefficients have been mostly based on phenomenological equations with no link to underlying micro-scale properties of these charged materials although a few recent studies have used alternative methods to obtain the diffusion parameters (Jougnot et al., 2009; Pivonka et al., 2009; Revil and Linde, 2006 2, 3 and 4). In this paper we employ a recently proposed up-scaled Poisson–Nernst–Planck type of equation (PNP) and its micro-scale counterpart to estimate effective ion diffusion coefficients in thin charged membranes. We investigate a variety of different pore geometries together with different surface charges on particles. Here, we show that independent of the charges on particles, a (generalized) tortuosity factor can be identified as function of the pore morphology only using the new PNP model. On the other hand, all electro-static interactions of ions and charges on particles can consistently be captured by the ratio of average concentration to effective intrinsic concentration in the macroscopic PNP equations. Using this formulation allows to consistently take into account electrochemical interactions of ions and charges on particles and so excludes any ambiguity generally encountered in phenomenological equations.     

CLM4.0模式对中国区域土壤湿度的数值模拟及评估研究

本文利用普林斯顿大学全球大气强迫场资料,驱动公用陆面过程模式（Community Land Model version 4.0,CLM4.0）模拟了中国区域1961～2010年土壤湿度的时空变化。将模拟结果与观测结果、美国国家环境预报中心再分析数据（National Centers for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis,NCEP）和高级微波扫描辐射计（Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS,AMSR-E）反演的土壤湿度进行了对比分析,结果表明CLM4.0模拟结果可以反映出中国区域观测土壤湿度的空间分布和时空变化特征,但东北、江淮和河套三个地区模拟值相对于观测值在各层次均系统性偏大。模拟与NCEP再分析土壤湿度的空间分布基本一致,与AMSR-E的反演值在35°N以北的分布也基本一致;从1961～2010年土壤湿度模拟结果分析得出,各层土壤湿度空间分布从西北向东南增加。低值区主要分布在新疆、青海、甘肃和内蒙古西部地区。东北平原、江淮地区和长江流域为高值区。土壤湿度数值总体上从浅层向深层增加。不同深度土壤湿度变化趋势基本相同。除新疆西部和东北部分地区外,土壤湿度在35°N以北以减少趋势为主,30°N以南的长江流域、华南及西南地区以增加为主。在全球气候变暖的背景下,CLM4.0模拟的夏季土壤湿度在不同程度上响应了降水的变化。中国典型干旱区和半干旱区土壤湿度减小,湿润区增加。其中湿润区土壤湿度对降水的响应最为显著,其次是半干旱区和干旱区。     

Modeling stress evolution around a rising salt diapir

We model the evolution of a salt diapir during sedimentation and study how deposition and salt movement affect stresses close to the diapir. We model the salt as a solid visco-plastic material and the sediments as a poro-elastoplastic material, using a generalized Modified Cam Clay model. The salt flows because ongoing sedimentation increases the average density within the overburden sediments, pressurizing the salt. Stresses rotate near a salt diapir, such that the maximum principal stress is perpendicular to the contact with the salt. The minimum principal stress is in the circumferential direction, and drops near the salt. The mean stress increases near the upper parts of the diapir, leading to a porosity that is lower than predicted for uniaxial burial at the same depth. We built this axisymmetric model within the large-strain finite-element program Elfen. Our results highlight the fact that forward modeling can provide a detailed understanding of the stress history of mudrocks close to salt diapirs; such an understanding is critical for predicting stress, porosity, and pore pressure in salt systems.