‘Boundary’ in Ancient Persian Tradition of Statehood

It is universally accepted that the need for defining precise lines of separation and points of contacts between states is the byproduct of the emergence of nation-states and ‘world economy’ in the 19th century Europe. Nevertheless, it is hard to overlook the fact that these modern notions are rooted in periods prior to the emergence in Europe of nation-states. There are indications that ancient civilizations were familiar with the notion of ‘state’ in connection with the concepts of territory and boundary. Ancient texts reveal that this basic principle existed in ancient Persian literature in respect of matters of state, territory, and boundary. Similarly, the likelihood exists that these Persian notions could have influenced Roman civilization. It is widely believed that a combination of ancient Greco-Roman and Persian civilizations is a major contributor to what culturally constitutes ‘West’. Later in the Sassanid period the inter-linked notions of state, territory, and boundary developed substantially, coming quite close to their contemporary forms. On the other hand, considering that ‘justice’ was the corner stone of ancient Persian Political philosophy, the idea that ancient Persian spatial arrangement might have contributed to the evolution of the concept of democracy in the West may not be too difficult to contemplate.     

Generalized plasticity state parameter‐based model for saturated and unsaturated soils. Part 1: Saturated state

The behavior of granular materials is known to depend on its loose or dense nature, which in turns depends both on density and confining pressure. Many models developed in the past require the use of different sets of constitutive parameters for the same material under different confining pressures. The purpose of this paper is to extend a basic generalized plasticity model for sands proposed by Pastor, Zienkiewicz and Chan by modifying the main ingredients of the model flow—rule, loading–unloading discriminating direction and plastic modulus—to include a dependency on the state parameter. The proposed model is tested against the available experimental data on three different sands, using for each of them a single set of material parameters, finding a reasonably good agreement between experiments and predictions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Limitations of suction‐controlled triaxial tests in the characterization of unsaturated soils

Behavior of unsaturated soils is influenced by many factors, and the influences of these factors are usually coupled together. Suction‐controlled triaxial (SCTX) tests are considered to allow researchers to investigate influences of individual variables on unsaturated soils under specified stress path with controls of stresses, pore water, and air pressures. In the past 50 years, SCTX testing method has been established as a standard approach to characterize constitutive behavior of unsaturated soils. Most important concepts for modern unsaturated soil mechanics were developed upon results from the SCTX tests. Among these, one of the most important contributions in the constitutive modeling of elasto‐plastic behavior for unsaturated soils is the Barcelona basic model (BBM) proposed by Alonso et al. in 1990. The BBM successfully explained many features of unsaturated soils and received extensive acceptance. However, the SCTX tests are designed based upon the divide‐and‐conquer approach in which an implicit assumption is used: soil behavior is stress‐path independent. However, it is well‐established that unsaturated soil behavior is elasto‐plastic and stress‐path dependent. It is found that the SCTX tests in fact cannot control the stress path of an unsaturated soil during loading. This incapability, in combination with complicated loading/collapse behavior of unsaturated soils, makes the SCTX tests for characterizing unsaturated soil questionable. This paper discusses the limitations of the SCTX tests in the characterization of unsaturated soils. A possible solution to the problem was proposed based on a newly developed modified state surface approach. The discussions are limited for isotropic conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generalized plasticity state parameter‐based model for saturated and unsaturated soils. Part II: Unsaturated soil modeling

The aim of this paper is to extend the generalized plasticity state parameter‐based model presented in part 1 to reproduce the hydro‐mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils. The proposed model is based on two pairs of stress–strain variables and a suitable hardening law taking into account the bonding—debonding effect of suction and degree of saturation. A generalized state parameter for unsaturated state is proposed to reproduce soil behavior using a single set of material parameters. Generalized plasticity gives a suitable framework to reproduce not only monotonic stress path but also cyclic behavior. The hydraulic hysteresis during a drying—wetting cycle and the void ratio effect on the hydraulic behavior is introduced. Comparison between model simulations and a series of experimental data available, both cohesive and granular, are given to illustrate the accuracy of the enhanced generalized plasticity equation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A bounding surface model for anisotropically overconsolidated clay incorporating thermodynamics admissible rotational hardening rule

A bounding surface model is formulated to simulate the behavior of clays that are subject to an anisotropic consolidation stress history. Conventional rotational hardening is revisited from the perspective of thermodynamics. As the free energy cannot be accumulated infinitely upon critical state failure, the deviatoric back stress must vanish. This requires the rotated yield surface to be turned back to eventually align on the hydrostatic axis in the stress plane. Noting that most of the previous propositions violate this restriction, an innovative rotational hardening rule is formulated that is thermodynamically admissible. The bounding surface framework that employs the modified yield surface is applied to simulate elastoplastic deformations for overconsolidated clays, with which the overprediction of strength on the “dry” side can be greatly improved with reasonable results. Other important features, including contractive or dilative response and hardening or softening behavior, can also be well-captured. It has been shown that the model can simulate three types of reconstituted clays that are sheared with initial conditions over a wide range of anisotropic consolidation stress ratios and overconsolidation ratios under both triaxial undrained and drained conditions. Limitations and potential improvement of the model regarding the fabric anisotropy at critical state have been discussed.     

A plasticity constitutive model for unsaturated,anisotropic, nonexpansive soils

The paper describes and evaluates an incremental plasticity constitutive model for unsaturated, anisotropic, nonexpansive soils (CMUA). It is based on the modified Cam-Clay (MCC) model for saturated soils and enhances it by introducing anisotropy (via rotation of the MCC yield surface) and an unsaturated compressibility framework describing a double dependence of compressibility on suction and on the degree of saturation of macroporosity. As the anisotropic and unsaturated features can be activated independently, the model is downwards compatible with the MCC model. The CMUA model can simulate effectively: the dependence of compressibility on the level of developed anisotropy, uniqueness of critical state independent of the initial anisotropy, an evolving compressibility during constant suction compression, and a maximum of collapse. The model uses Bishop's average skeleton stress as its first constitutive variable, favouring its numerical implementation in commercial numerical analysis codes (eg, finite element codes) and a unified treatment of saturated and unsaturated material states.     

鹿井铀矿床铀矿物学特征

鹿井矿床位于南华活动带华夏褶皱带武功—诸广断隆区,闽、赣后加里东褶皱地块西缘,诸广山复式岩体中段,受遂川断裂及热水断裂组成的地堑式断陷带控制。本文主要对鹿井矿床内铀矿物的赋存状态、成分特征及组合特征进行了研究。     

基于稳定同位素的东太平洋大青鲨(Prionace glauca)营养级研究

碳、氮稳定同位素为分析淡水和海洋生态系统的生物营养关系提供了有力手段,但在大洋鱼类中的应用还很少。本研究以热带东太平洋大青鲨(Prionace glauca)整节脊椎骨作为样品(叉长范围153—242cm),运用稳定同位素技术,分析大青鲨的δ~(13)C值和δ~(15)N值及其变化,比较不同基线生物的选择对营养级计算的影响。结果表明,大青鲨δ~(13)C范围为–15.76‰—–13.41‰,最大差值2.35‰;δ~(15)N范围为10.62‰—17.72‰,最大差值7.1‰;δ~(13)C值和δ~(15)N值随个体长度的变化不明显(可能原因是样品鱼均为较大个体),性别间的差异不显著,但不同基线生物的选择对营养级计算值的影响较大。本文研究表明,通过整节脊椎骨的稳定同位素测定来获得大青鲨的摄食特征信息是可行的。由于基线生物对营养级计算的影响问题难以在短期内解决,今后可将相对营养级或营养级的变化作为重点,研究人类活动(如捕捞)对大洋鱼类摄食和营养级的影响。     

高等级海况条件下移动式海上基地动力响应分析

针对半潜式超大型浮式结构中典型的移动式海上基地(Mobile Offshore Base,MOB)在高等级海况下的动力响应问题展开研究。在MOB结构"刚性模块-柔性连接构件(Rigid Modules and Flexible Connectors,RMFC)"模型的前提下,根据动力学基本原理,经理论推导并计算得到MOB分别在6、7、8级海况的随机波激励下,其上各模块的动力响应位移结果。详细分析了MOB结构同一模块在不同海况条件下的动力响应位移随浪向角及连接构件刚度的变化规律。研究成果可为半潜式超大型浮式结构动力响应研究及结构优化设计提供一定的技术支撑。     

高频地波雷达海杂波背景下的船只目标检测研究进展

针对海杂波对高频地波雷达目标检测的干扰问题,分目标处于海杂波谱区之内和之外两种情况综述了海杂波背景下的目标检测方法。对于海杂波内目标检测的难题,介绍了一种基于现场海态同步观测信息的检测新思路以及初步验证结果。对国内外相关研究进展的归纳总结和新思路的提出,为提出更加有效的海杂波干扰下的目标检测方法提供了重要的参考。