Newly developed technique and analysis solution to accelerate consolidation of ultrasoft soil

Plastic vertical drainage is widely used in vacuum preloading for soft soil treatment. However, plastic vertical drainage has a number of disadvantages such as it only provides drainage paths in vertical directions and the distribution of soil strength is not uniform. A new technique, prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage, was developed in this study to shorten the consolidation time of ultrasoft soil. Using one vertical drainage tube and four horizontal drainage tubes, prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage provides drainage paths not only in vertical but also in horizontal directions. An analytical solution was derived to calculate the degree of soil consolidation when using the prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage technique. Field tests were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage and to verify the proposed analytical solution. It was found that consolidation time of soft clays using prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage was 50% lower than plastic vertical drainage. Moreover, the average undrained shear strength of soil treated by the prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage technique was approximately 30% larger than that treated by the plastic vertical drainage technique. The degree of soil consolidation estimated from the proposed analytical solution showed good agreement with field measurements. This implies that the proposed analytical solution can be used to directly estimate the degree of consolidation when the soil is treated by prefabricated vertical–horizontal drainage.     

Impact of climate change on dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbine

Global warming is expected to change the wind and wave patterns at a significant level, which may lead to conditions outside current design criteria of monopile supported offshore wind turbine (OWT). This study examines the impact of climate change on the dynamic behavior and future safety of an OWT founded in clay incorporating dynamic soil–structure interaction. A statistical downscaling model is used to generate the time series of future wind speed and wave height at local level. The responses and fatigue life of OWT are estimated for present and future periods and extent of change in design is investigated at offshore location along the west coast of India. Wind speed, wave height, and wave period data are collected from the buoy deployed by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and the future climate for the next 30 years is simulated using the general circulation model corresponding to Special Report on Emission Scenarios A1B scenario. The OWT is modeled as Euler–Bernoulli beam and soil–structure interaction is incorporated using nonlinear p-y springs. This study shows that changes in design of OWT are needed due to increased responses owing to the effect of climate change. Fatigue life is found to be decreased because of climate change.     

Apparent conflicting Roadian–Wordian (middle Permian) CA-IDTIMS and palynology ages from the Canning Basin,Western Australia

U–Pb dating of zircons from thin middle Permian tuffs in the Canning Basin of Western Australia by chemical abrasion-isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry reveals a conflict with the established spore-pollen zonation. Normally, the first appearance datum of Dulhuntyispora granulata across the continent lies stratigraphically above assemblages assigned to the Microbaculispora villosa Zone. However, the youngest tuffs within non-marine facies from the M. villosa Zone in Pittston SD-1, drilled in the southwest of the Canning Basin, yielded an age of 267.04 ± 0.14 Ma, which is 1.7 million years younger than tuffs associated with the D. granulata Zone in marginal-marine facies from core holes 350–400 km to the northeast. The apparent conflict in ages is possibly due to the non-marine depositional environment having wielded a strong local influence on the palynoflora along the edge of this basin. Although the present information indicates an age 2.5 million years younger than the 266.6 Ma age previously suggested for the top of the M. villosa Zone, revisions to the ages of Roadian–Wordian spore-pollen zones are not considered justifiable without further supporting evidence. Furthermore, considerable care is needed when comparing palynological assemblages from significantly differing facies. Two basaltic sills (43.5 m and 20 m thick) immediately below the tuffaceous beds in Pittston SD-1 are coincidental, as Ar–Ar dating indicates a Late Triassic age for the intrusions.     

Provenance,tectonic setting and source of Archean metasedimentary rocks of the Browns Range Metamorphics,Tanami Region,Western Australia

This study combines U–Pb age and Lu–Hf isotope data for magmatic and detrital zircons, with whole-rock geochemistry of the Browns Range Metamorphics (BRM), Western Australia. The BRM are medium- to coarse-grained metasandstones that consist of angular to sub-rounded detrital quartz and feldspars with minor granitic lithic fragments. The sequence has undergone partial to extensive quartz–muscovite alteration and rare-earth-element mineralisation and has been intruded by mafic/ultramafic, syenitic and pegmatitic intrusive rock units. Uranium–Pb and Lu–Hf isotopic data on detrital zircons from the metasandstones and intruding granitic rocks yield a well-defined age of ca 3.2 to ca 3.0 Ga for all samples, with relatively radiogenic ?_Hf values (?_Hf = –1.7 to 5.1) indicating derivation from Mesoarchean granite basement of juvenile origin. This is consistent with geochemical and petrological data that support deposition from a granitic source in a continental rift basin setting. The timing of sediment deposition is constrained between the ca 3.0 Ga age of the source rocks and ca 2.5 Ga age of the granitic intrusive bodies that cross-cut the metasedimentary rocks. The ca 2.5 Ga zircons from the intrusive rocks have ?_Hf model ages of ca 3.4 to ca 3.1 Ga, which is consistent with formation via partial melting of the BRM, or the Mesoarchean granite basement. Zircons of the Gardiner Sandstone that unconformably overlies the BRM return detrital ages of ca 2.6 to ca 1.8 Ga with no trace of ca 3.1 Ga zircons, which discounts a significant contribution from the underlying BRM. The Mesoarchean age and isotopic signatures of the BRM zircons are shared by some zircon records from the Pine Creek Orogen, and the Pilbara, Yilgarn and Gawler cratons. Collectively, these records indicate that juvenile Mesoarchean crust is a more significant component of Australian cratons than is currently recognised. This work also further demonstrates that detrital minerals in Paleoproterozoic/Archean sedimentary rocks are archives to study the early crustal record of Earth.     

Interaction of fluid–solid–geomembrane by the material point method

A dynamic, large deformation problem of fluid–solid–geomembrane interaction is analysed by the use of material point method, a variant of the finite element method stated in a Lagrangian–Eulerian format. A low-order element is used for space discretisation and the fluid is treated as a compressible liquid with a high value of bulk modulus. Therefore, two algorithms known from literature are applied to mitigate the effects related to the volumetric locking phenomenon. Moreover, a procedure of detecting the free surface is proposed. The method is applied to problems of determining the shape of geo-tubes, collapsing water column, and finally, to the problem of installation of a geo-container on the bed of a water reservoir. The obtained numerical outcomes are compared with the experimental results and the analytic ones when available.     

Contemporaneous assembly of Western Gondwana and final Rodinia break-up: Implications for the supercontinent cycle

Geological, geochronological and isotopic data are integrated in order to present a revised model for the Neoproterozoic evolution of Western Gondwana. Although the classical geodynamic scenario assumed for the period 800–700 Ma is related to Rodinia break-up and the consequent opening of major oceanic basins, a significantly different tectonic evolution can be inferred for most Western Gondwana cratons. These cratons occupied a marginal position in the southern hemisphere with respect to Rodinia and recorded subduction with back-arc extension, island arc development and limited formation of oceanic crust in internal oceans. This period was thus characterized by increased crustal growth in Western Gondwana, resulting from addition of juvenile continental crust along convergent margins. In contrast, crustal reworking and metacratonization were dominant during the subsequent assembly of Gondwana. The Río de la Plata, Congo-São Francisco, West African and Amazonian cratons collided at ca. 630–600 Ma along the West Gondwana Orogen. These events overlap in time with the onset of the opening of the Iapetus Ocean at ca. 610–600 Ma, which gave rise to the separation of Baltica, Laurentia and Amazonia and resulted from the final Rodinia break-up. The East African/Antarctic Orogen recorded the subsequent amalgamation of Western and Eastern Gondwana after ca. 580 Ma, contemporaneously with the beginning of subduction in the Terra Australis Orogen along the southern Gondwana margin. However, the Kalahari Craton was lately incorporated during the Late Ediacaran–Early Cambrian. The proposed Gondwana evolution rules out the existence of Pannotia, as the final Gondwana amalgamation postdates latest connections between Laurentia and Amazonia. Additionally, a combination of introversion and extroversion is proposed for the assembly of Gondwana. The contemporaneous record of final Rodinia break-up and Gondwana assembly has major implications for the supercontinent cycle, as supercontinent amalgamation and break-up do not necessarily represent alternating episodic processes but overlap in time.     

Cambrian–early Ordovician volcanism across the South Armorican and Occitan domains of the Variscan Belt in France: Continental break-up and rifting of the northern Gondwana margin

The Cambrian–lower Ordovician volcanic units of the South Armorican and Occitan domains are analysed in a tectonostratigraphic survey of the French Variscan Belt. The South Armorican lavas consist of continental tholeiites in middle Cambrian–Furongian sequences related to continental break-up. A significant volcanic activity occurred in the Tremadocian, dominated by crustal melted rhyolitic lavas and initial rifting tholeiites. The Occitan lavas are distributed into five volcanic phases: (1) basal Cambrian rhyolites, (2) upper lower Cambrian Mg-rich tholeiites close to N-MORBs but crustal contaminated, (3) upper lower–middle Cambrian continental tholeiites, (4) Tremadocian rhyolites, and (5) upper lower Ordovician initial rift tholeiites. A rifting event linked to asthenosphere upwelling took place in the late early Cambrian but did not evolve. It renewed in the Tremadocian with abundant crustal melting due to underplating of mixed asthenospheric and lithospheric magmas. This main tectono-magmatic continental rift is termed the “Tremadocian Tectonic Belt” underlined by a chain of rhyolitic volcanoes from Occitan and South Armorican domains to Central Iberia. It evolved with the setting of syn-rift coarse siliciclastic deposits overlain by post-rift deep water shales in a suite of sedimentary basins that forecasted the South Armorican–Medio-European Ocean as a part of the Palaeotethys Ocean.     

Three-dimensional finite element analysis for soil slopes stabilisation using piles

This paper presents the analytical methods of slope-stabilising piles using the three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) analysis with the strength reduction method (SRM). This 3-D FE model is employed to overcome the limitations observed in two-dimensional (2-D) FE analysis. The solutions obtained from 3-D FE analyses are verified to be less conservative in this paper. The 3-D analysis is considered to be of particular importance to pile-slope problems. The soil that flows between piles cannot be taken account properly in the 2-D FE analysis. The method adopted in this paper can avoid the assumption of soil movement and the pressure distribution along the piles subjected to soil movement. The numerical analysis employs the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion with the strength reduction technique for soil and an elastic member for piles. The spacing effect of the pile is considered in the 3-D model, the S/D (S: centre to centre, D: diameter of pile) ratio, equal to 4.0, is found to be equivalent to the single pile stabilisation. The middle portion of the slope is identified as the optimal location to place the piles. The proper length of the pile, which can be used to stabilise the slope, is also examined using 3-D FE analyses. It is concluded that L/H greater or equal 0.70 is recommended (L: pile length, H: slope height). The numerical analyses are conducted based on a coupled analysis, which simultaneously considers both the slope stability and the pile response. The failure mechanisms of the pile-slope system subjected to the pile locations, pile head conditions and pile length are each discussed. The contact pressure, shear force and moment along the piles are presented to illustrate the pile stabilising mechanism herein.     

Bearing capacity of spatially random rock masses obeying Hoek–Brown failure criterion

This paper presents a probabilistic analysis to compute the probability density function of the bearing capacity of a strip footing resting on a spatially varying rock mass. The rock is assumed to follow the generalised Hoek–Brown failure criterion. The uniaxial compressive strength of the intact rock (σc) was considered as a random field and the geological strength index was modelled as a random variable. The uncertainty propagation methodology employed in the analysis is the sparse polynomial chaos expansion. A global sensitivity analysis based on Sobol indices was performed. Some numerical results were presented and discussed.     

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