Quantimet image analysis of soil pore geometry: Comparison with tracer breakthrough curves

The relationships between two-dimensional image analysis of soil thin-sections and tracer breakthrough curves has been studied for a silty clay loam brown earth soil under saturated conditions. Initial tracer breakthrough is well in advance of one pore volume. Discrepancies between Quantimet image analysis and breakthrough curve characterization were related by inference to the role of infrequently occurring macropores not necessarily sampled on the two-dimensional images. A fundamental difficulty found in the use of image analysis is the uncertain nature of the relationship between the two-dimensional image and the three-dimensional pore system. Caution is needed in using Quantimet image analysis to describe gross properties of the three-dimensional pore system.     

90年代中国省级区域经济与环境协调度分析

在阐述经济环境协调度理论的基础上,建立了环境承载力与经济发展水平之间的协调度模型。并通过对90年代我国省级区域的实证分析,发现我国空间区域经济环境协调度基本符合“U”型曲线,区域经济发展模式大多以牺牲环境为代价,特别是中西部地区的问题比较严重。     

外界条件变化对天然气水合物相平衡曲线及稳定带厚度的影响

目前，有关天然气水合物的相关研究越来越多，而天然气水合物相平衡曲线和稳定带厚度的研究也变得越来越重要.本文利用Sloan的CSMHYD程序研究了外界条件变化对天然气水合物相平衡曲线及稳定带厚度的影响.研究结果表明：当天然气水合物中含有其他气体时，除了氮气会使水合物稳定存在的区域变小外；其他气体都会使稳定区域变大，且甲烷含量越少，水合物越容易形成；对于本文中所提到的几种气体，丙烷和硫化氢对相平衡曲线的影响最大；另外，水合物稳定存在的区域会随着盐度增加而变小.地温梯度、水深、海底温度、气体组成和孔隙水盐度对稳定带厚度的影响不同，其中稳定带厚度与地温梯度呈指数相关关系，与水深呈对数相关关系，与海底温度、水合物中甲烷含量及气体组成呈线性相关关系.水深从1 000 m增加到4 000 m时，稳定带厚度增加了大约400 m；水深2 000 m情况下，地温梯度从0.02℃/m到0.1℃/m变化时，稳定带厚度减薄了大约660 m；底水温度从0~17℃的变化过程中，稳定带厚度减薄了大约1000m；在水合物中气体组成从纯甲烷到含20%乙烷时，稳定带厚度增加了大约170m；盐度在0~4.5 wt％的变化中，稳定带厚度减薄了大约130 m.由此可见，在这几种因素中，地温梯度和底水温度对稳定带厚度的影响较大.     

瞬态瑞雷面波法在公路工程地质勘察中的应用

结合安徽省高速公路建设工程实例,介绍瞬态瑞雷面波勘探技术在公路工程地质勘察中的应用,解决沿线高边坡、深路堑、桥梁、隧道进出口的岩土分层,给出基岩风化分带等工程地质问题,省时、省力,取得了良好的经济效益和环境效益.     

Stress induced time dependent behavior of clayey soils

It is shown that time compression curve obtained from one-dimensional consolidation curve in the laboratory may include six phases. These are initial compression, first primary compression, transition from first primary compression to second primary compression, second primary compression, and transition from second primary compression to creep and lastly creep. This paper attempts to identify the quantitative beginnings and characteristics of these phases. A mathematical characteristic of all the soils that follow primary consolidation as per Terzaghi’s one dimensional consolidation theory is derived. It is known as the constant of primary consolidation. It is used to study the beginning of secondary consolidation and its effects on primary consolidation. Another characteristic of soils for creep and total absence of primary compression is derived. Methods are suggested for the determination of coefficients of Primary and Secondary consolidations and the compression index.     

环境库兹涅茨曲线在文山县城的应用

环境库兹涅茨曲线认为随着经济发展，环境质量先下降后改善，环境质量与收入之间表现为倒U形曲线，这意味着经济发展最终会解决环境问题。应用这一思想，根据1991～2000年文山县城区大气污染指数及1998～2002年盘龙河水污染物浓度与同期人均居民收入进行了回归分析，发现对多数污染物而言，表现为N形的高次曲线能很好的拟合两者之间的关系，据此提出一种简单但普遍的机理来解释EKC曲线，即经济发展对环境质量的正负反馈作用决定其在涨落中演变。     

The stiffness degradation and damping ratio evolution of Taipei Silty Clay under cyclic straining

The non-linear behavior of Taipei Silty Clay under cyclic strain loading was investigated through a series of undrained cyclic strain-controlled tests. The Ramberg–Osgood equation was used with our proposed stiffness degradation model to calculate degraded secant moduli. The proposed degradation model is simple in that it has only one more component than Idriss's model, the modulus ratio for the first cycle, which reflects the effects of the previous cyclic strain history and the current level of the cyclic strain amplitude, and can be used to describe softening and hardening behavior under irregular cyclic straining. It was found that the Ramberg–Osgood equation successfully predicts the damping ratio for small to medium strains. However, it overestimates the damping ratio for larger strains, so we suggest it can be corrected with a damping ratio index. In addition, the proposed equation for describing the evolution of the damping ratio provides the means to assess the variation for Taipei Silty Clay in the measured damping ratio with both the number of cycles and the strain amplitude.     

Logic-tree Approach for Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis and its Applications to the Japanese Coasts

For Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis (PTHA), we propose a logic-tree approach to construct tsunami hazard curves (relationship between tsunami height and probability of exceedance) and present some examples for Japan for the purpose of quantitative assessments of tsunami risk for important coastal facilities. A hazard curve is obtained by integration over the aleatory uncertainties, and numerous hazard curves are obtained for different branches of logic-tree representing epistemic uncertainty. A PTHA consists of a tsunami source model and coastal tsunami height estimation. We developed the logic-tree models for local tsunami sources around Japan and for distant tsunami sources along the South American subduction zones. Logic-trees were made for tsunami source zones, size and frequency of tsunamigenic earthquakes, fault models, and standard error of estimated tsunami heights. Numerical simulation rather than empirical relation was used for estimating the median tsunami heights. Weights of discrete branches that represent alternative hypotheses and interpretations were determined by the questionnaire survey for tsunami and earthquake experts, whereas those representing the error of estimated value were determined on the basis of historical data. Examples of tsunami hazard curves were illustrated for the coastal sites, and uncertainty in the tsunami hazard was displayed by 5-, 16-, 50-, 84- and 95-percentile and mean hazard curves.     

3D image-based characterization of fluid displacement in a Berea core

Improved network flow models require the incorporation of increasingly accurate geometrical characterization of the microscale pore structure as well as greater information on fluid–fluid interaction (interfaces) at pore scales. We report on three dimensional (3D) pore scale medium characterization, absolute permeability computations for throat structures, and pore scale residual fluid distribution in a Berea core. X-ray computed microtomography combined with X-ray attenuating dopants is used to obtain 3D images of the pore network and to resolve phase distributions in the pore space.     

Dual models of pore spaces

We present a model for pore spaces that consists of two parts related by duality: (1) a decomposition of an open polyhedral pore space into open contractible pore bodies separated by relatively open interfaces and (2) a pore network that is homotopy equivalent to the pore space. The dual model is unique and free of parameters, but it relies on regularity conditions for the pore space. We show how to approximate any pore space by the interior of a polyhedral complex such that the regularity conditions are fulfilled. Thus, we are able to calculate the dual model from synthetic porous media and images of real porous media. The pore bodies are unions of relatively open Delaunay cells with respect to the corners of the pore boundary, and the pore network consists of certain at most two-dimensional (2D) Voronoi cells with respect to the corners of the pore boundary. The pore network describes the neighborhood relations between the pore bodies. In particular, any relatively open 2D Delaunay face f separating two pore bodies has a unique (relatively open) dual network edge. In our model, f is a pore throat only if it is hit by its dual network edge. Thus, as opposed to widespread intuition, any pore throat is convex, and adjacent pore bodies are not necessarily separated by pore throats. Due to the duality between the pore network and the decomposition of the pore space into pore bodies it is straightforward to store the geometrical properties of the pore bodies [pore throats] as attributes of the dual network vertices [edges]. Such an attributed network is used to perform 2D drainage simulations. The results agree very well with those from a pore-morphology based modeling approach performed directly on the digital image of a porous medium. Contractibility of the pore bodies and homotopy equivalence of the pore space and the pore network is proven using discrete Morse theory and the nerve theorem from combinatorial topology.