Long-term erosion on granitic roadcuts based on exposed tree roots

Exposed roots were used to estimate soil and bedrock erosion on the cut slopes of a 45-year-old road constructed in granitic soils of the Idaho Batholith. The original roadcut surface was defined by projecting a straight line from the toe of the cut past the end of the exposed root to the intersection of a straight line projected along the surface of the hillslope. A cross-sectioning technique was then used to determine erosion to the present roadcut surface. A total of 41 exposed root sites were used to estimate erosion on a 1350 m-long section of road. Average erosion was 1·0 and 1·1 cm/year for soil and bedrock respectively. Buttressing by tree roots caused lower erosion rates for soil as compared to bedrock. Both soil and bedrock erosion rates showed statistically significant correlations with the gradients of the original cut slope. The bedrock erosion data provide a reasonable estimate of the disintegration rate of exposed granitic bedrock exhibiting the weathering and fracturing properties common to this area. The road is located in a study watershed where long-term sediment yield data are available. Sediment data from adjacent study watersheds with no roads were compared to sediment data from the roaded watershed to estimate the long-term increase in sediment yield caused by the road. The increase amounts to about 2·4 m³/year. This figure, compared to the average annual on-site road erosion, provides an erosion to sediment delivery ratio of less than 10 per cent. Based on study results, road construction and maintenance practices are suggested for helping reduce roadcut erosion.     

A new criterion for strength of frozen sand under quick triaxial compression considering effect of confining pressure

The strength of frozen soils has been one of the most extensively studied aspects in frozen soil mechanics. When carrying out deep excavations using freezing methods, high stress states are often encountered. Therefore, the strength of frozen soils under high confining pressures is of major concern. This paper first reviews the present failure criteria for frozen soils, especially with regard to the effect of confining pressure on the strength. It is suggested that the strength consists of two components, cohesion and friction, and can be expressed by the Mohr–Coulomb criterion and in the framework of the Drucker–Prager criterion. However, these two components are both dependent on the stress state. Duncan’s equation for the friction angle is extended to frozen soils. A frozen Lanzhou fine sand is taken as study subject. The frozen sand is compressed at a high strain rate under three different temperatures and under a wide range of confining pressure. Experimental results have confirmed the generally recognized principle that the strength increases with the confining pressure up to certain value. Thereafter, it decreases with continued increase in confining pressure. Experimental data from our own tests and literature are fitted to the new criterion, which shows its validity.     

SPECIFIC DEGRADATION OF WATERSHEDS

An extensive database of reservoir sedimentation surveys throughout continental United States is compiled and analyzed to determine specific degradation SD relationships as function of mean annual rainfall R, drainage area A, and watershed slope S. The database contains 1463 field measurements and specific degradation relationships are defined as function of A, R and S. Weak trends and significant variability in the data are noticeable. Specific degradation measurements are log normally distributed with respect to R, A, and S and 95% confidence intervals are determined accordingly. The accuracy of the predictions does not significantly increase as more independent variables are added to the regression analyses.     

Application of <Superscript>137</Superscript>Cs fingerprinting technique to interpreting sediment production records from reservoir deposits in a small catchment of the Hilly Loess Plateau,China

According to variations of 137Cs and clay contents, 44 flood couplets were identified in a profile of reservoir deposit with a vertical length of 28.12 m in the Yuntaishan Gully. Couplet 27 at the middle of the profile had the highest average 137Cs content of 12.65 Bq kg-1, which indicated the 1963s' deposits, then 137Cs content decreased both downward and upward in the profile. The second top and bottom couplets had average 137Cs contents of 2.15 Bq kg-1 and 0.92 Bq kg-1, respectively. By integrated analysis of reservoir construction and management history, variations of 137Cs contents over the profile, sediment yields of flood couplets and rainfall data during the period of 1958-1970, individual storms related to the flood couplets were identified. 44 floods with a total sediment yield of 2.36×104 m3 occurred and flood events in a year varied between 1 and 10 times during the period of 1960-1970. 7-10 flood events occurred during the wet period of 1961-1964 with very wet autumn, while only 1-2 events during the dry period of 1965-1969. Average annual specific sediment yield was 1.29×104 t km-2 a-1 for the Yuntaishan Gully during the period of 1960-1970, which was slightly higher than 1.11 ×104 t km-2 a-1 for the Upper Yanhe River Basin above the Ganguyi Hydrological Station and slightly lower than 1.40 ×104 t km-2 a-1 for the nearby Zhifang Gully during the same period. Annual specific sediment yields for the Yuntaishan Gully were correlated to the wet season's rainfalls well.     

Evaluation of the SEDD model for predicting sediment yield at the Sicilian experimental SPA2 basin

In this paper a spatially distributed model of the hillslope sediment delivery processes, named the sediment delivery distributed (SEDD) model, is initially reviewed; the model takes into account the sediment delivery processes due to both the hillslope sediment transport and the effects of slope curvature. Then the rainfall and sediment yield events measured at the experimental SPA2 basin, in Sicily, are used both to calibrate the SEDD model and to verify the predictive capability of the distributed sediment delivery approach at event scale. For the SPA2 basin discretized into morphological units and stream tubes, the SEDD model is calibrated at event scale using the measurements carried out at the outlet of the experimental basin in the period December 2000–January 2001. The model calibration is used to determine a relationship useful for estimating the unique coefficient β_e of the model by rainfall erosivity factor R_e at event scale. To test the predictive capability of the β_e = f(R_e) relationship, 20 events measured in the period September 2002–December 2005 are used; the comparison between measured sediment yield values and calculated ones for all monitored events shows that the sediment delivery distributed approach has a good predictive ability at event scale. The analysis also shows that estimating β_e by the relationship β_e = f(R_e) gives a better agreement between measured and calculated sediment yields than obtained with the median value β_e,m of all 27 calculated β_e values. Finally the analysis at annual scale, for the period 2000–2005, allows the estimation of the median value β_a,m representative of the annual behaviour. This analysis shows that the sediment delivery distributed approach also has a good predictive ability at annual scale. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effectiveness of simple approaches in mitigating residual deformations in buildings

Developments in performance‐based seismic design and assessment approaches have emphasized the importance of considering residual deformations. Recent investigations have also led to a proposed direct displacement‐based design (DDBD) approach which includes an explicit consideration of the expected residual deformations as an integral part of the design process. Having estimated the expected residual deformations in a structure, engineers are faced with the problem of reducing them to meet the targeted performance levels under pre‐defined seismic hazard levels. Previous studies have identified the post‐yield stiffness as a primary factor influencing the magnitude of residual deformations in single degree of freedom and multiple degree of freedom structures. In this paper, a series of simple approaches to increase the post‐yield stiffness of traditional framed and braced systems for the purpose of reducing residual deformations are investigated. These methods do not utilize recentring post‐tensioned technology. This contribution addresses the feasibility of altering the lateral post‐yield stiffness of structural systems by: (i) using different reinforcement materials with beneficial features in their stress–strain behaviour; (ii) re‐designing the section geometry and properties of primary seismic‐resisting elements; and (iii) introducing a secondary elastic frame to act in parallel with the primary system. The efficiency of each of these techniques is investigated through monotonic and cyclic moment‐curvature and non‐linear time‐history analyses. Of these approaches the design and introduction of an elastic secondary system was found to be most effective and consistent in reducing residual deformations. A simplified design approach for achieving the desired increase of a system's post‐yield stiffness is also presented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

影响我国主要粮食作物产量的气象因子研究

通过收集前人主要粮食作物气象产量预报的研究成果，将所得到的资料按作物进行分类，并进行归一化处理，使用系统聚类分析方法，以预报方程中的影响因子为指标，分区找出各区主要粮食作物产量的主、次要影响因子和影响时期，为大范围作物产量预报提供了科学依据。     

淄博市大武水源地地下水水位总体预测

本文采用水均衡法对淄博市大武水源地地下水位变动进行研究，并对降水量与人渗补给量的关系以及平均给水度随地下水位的变化关系进行了分析。通过历史资料的验证，表明本文所建立的水均衡模型对于地下水位变动的预测是可靠的，而且简单可行，随后根据不同的地下水开采量等对未来地下水位的变动趋势进行了预测。     

摩擦与粘性流体耗能器串联体系动力分析

采用粘性屈服模型来模拟摩擦耗能器的力－速度关系，建立了摩擦与粘性流体耗能器串联耗能体系的动力分析方法．为考虑框架杆件和支撑材料的几何非线性，采用增量型Ｒｏｓｅｎｂｒｏｃｋ二级三阶半隐式Ｒｕｎｇｅ－Ｋｕｔｔａ法求解动力方程．比较了仅有摩擦耗能器体系与串联组合耗能体系的减振效果，分析了粘性流体耗能器参数对组合耗能体系减振效果的影响。     

摩擦耗能框架体系动力分析

采用粘性屈服模型来模拟摩擦耗能器的力－速度关系。建立了带有摩擦耗能器体系的动力分析8方法，采用增量型Rosenbrock二阶三阶半隐式Runge-Kutta法求解动力方程，得到了带有摩擦耗能器单层框架在正弦波激励下反应的解析解，并据此验证粘性屈服模型及求解动力方程算法的正确性，分析了摩擦耗能器的起滑力和支撑刚度对耗能减振效果的影响。