Low-frequency current variability observed at the shelfbreak in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico: November 2004–May 2005

Fourteen acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) were deployed on the shelf and slope for 1 year just west of the DeSoto Canyon in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as part of its Slope to Shelf Energetics and Exchange Dynamics (SEED) project. The winter and spring observations are discussed here in regards to the low-frequency current variability and its relation to wind and eddy forcing. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses showed that two modes described most of the current variability. Wind-forced variability of the along-shelf flow was the main contributor in Mode 1 while eddies contributed much of the variability in Mode 2. Wind-stress controlled currents on the shelf and slope at time scales of about a week. On longer time scales, variations in the currents on both the outer shelf and slope appear to be related to seasonal variations in the time-cumulated wind stress curl. Winds were dominant in driving the along-shelf transports, particularly along the slope. However, the effective wind stress component was found to be aligned with the west Florida shelf direction rather than the local shelf direction. Eddy intrusions, which were more numerous in winter and spring than in summer and fall, and winds were found to contribute significantly to cross-shelf exchange processes.     

Influence of seepage undercutting on the stability of root‐reinforced streambanks

Several mechanisms contribute to streambank failure including fluvial toe undercutting, reduced soil shear strength by increased soil pore‐water pressure, and seepage erosion. Recent research has suggested that seepage erosion of noncohesive soil layers undercutting the banks may play an equivalent role in streambank failure to increased soil pore‐water pressure. However, this past research has primarily been limited to laboratory studies of non‐vegetated banks. The objective of this research was to utilize the Bank Stability and Toe Erosion Model (BSTEM) in order to determine the importance of seepage undercutting relative to bank shear strength, bank angle, soil pore‐water pressure, and root reinforcement. The BSTEM simulated two streambanks: Little Topashaw Creek and Goodwin Creek in northern Mississippi. Simulations included three bank angles (70° to 90°), four pore‐water pressure distributions (unsaturated, two partially saturated cases, and fully saturated), six distances of undercutting (0 to 40 cm), and 13 different vegetation conditions (root cohesions from 0·0 to 15·0 kPa). A relative sensitivity analysis suggested that BSTEM was approximately three to four times more sensitive to water table position than root cohesion or depth of seepage undercutting. Seepage undercutting becomes a prominent bank failure mechanism on unsaturated to partially saturated streambanks with root reinforcement, even with undercutting distances as small as 20 cm. Consideration of seepage undercutting is less important under conditions of partially to fully saturated soil pore‐water conditions. The distance at which instability by undercutting became equivalent to instability by increased soil pore‐water pressure decreased as root reinforcement increased, with values typically ranging between 20 and 40 cm at Little Topashaw Creek and between 20 and 55 cm at Goodwin Creek. This research depicts the baseline conditions at which seepage undercutting of vegetated streambanks needs to be considered for bank stability analyses. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical modeling of two-phase flow in heterogeneous permeable media with different capillarity pressures

Contrast in capillary pressure of heterogeneous permeable media can have a significant effect on the flow path in two-phase immiscible flow. Very little work has appeared on the subject of capillary heterogeneity despite the fact that in certain cases it may be as important as permeability heterogeneity. The discontinuity in saturation as a result of capillary continuity, and in some cases capillary discontinuity may arise from contrast in capillary pressure functions in heterogeneous permeable media leading to complications in numerical modeling. There are also other challenges for accurate numerical modeling due to distorted unstructured grids because of the grid orientation and numerical dispersion effects. Limited attempts have been made in the literature to assess the accuracy of fluid flow modeling in heterogeneous permeable media with capillarity heterogeneity. The basic mixed finite element (MFE) framework is a superior method for accurate flux calculation in heterogeneous media in comparison to the conventional finite difference and finite volume approaches. However, a deficiency in the MFE from the direct use of fractional flow formulation has been recognized lately in application to flow in permeable media with capillary heterogeneity. In this work, we propose a new consistent formulation in 3D in which the total velocity is expressed in terms of the wetting-phase potential gradient and the capillary potential gradient. In our formulation, the coefficient of the wetting potential gradient is in terms of the total mobility which is smoother than the wetting mobility. We combine the MFE and discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods to solve the pressure equation and the saturation equation, respectively. Our numerical model is verified with 1D analytical solutions in homogeneous and heterogeneous media. We also present 2D examples to demonstrate the significance of capillary heterogeneity in flow, and a 3D example to demonstrate the negligible effect of distorted meshes on the numerical solution in our proposed algorithm.     

土钉支护结构破坏模式和加固机制分析

对不同土质中土性参数和支护参数共同影响下基坑土钉支护结构的内力和位移进行了系统的数值试验研究。结果表明,从砂土到粉土,再到软黏土介质变化时,基坑位移大小剧增,位移形态也发展成下部凸出的流鼓状,而且中下部土钉不能满足承载力要求。土性参数中,内摩擦角和凝聚力是导致位移形态发生改变的主要因素,侧压力系数主要引起位移大小的变化。支护参数中,土钉密度突出控制钉间土体位移;土钉长度在砂土中控制上部位移显著,软黏土中抑制下部位移更明显;土钉刚度的影响体现为钉土刚度比的影响,主要由插筋刚度控制,而随土类变化并不明显;并得出了各支护参数的临界值。     

溪洛渡水电站某危岩体稳定性及加固措施研究

在现场调查分析的基础上,提出了溪洛渡水电站某危岩体的两种可能失稳模式（剪切坠落或拉裂倾倒失稳）,进而建立了相应的稳定性计算极限平衡力学模型,而且对危岩体的变形和破坏特征进行了数值模拟分析,分析结果表明,危岩体抗拉裂倾倒稳定性较差,剪切坠落失稳的稳定性系数较高。在稳定性分析的基础上,计算出危岩体倾倒失稳时,安全系数为1.5时的锚固力,进而提出了危岩体加固方案：充填凹岩腔+填充裂隙+预应力锚索＋锚杆联合加固,数值模拟表明此加固方案效果良好。     

基于弹性地基梁理论的土工格室加筋体变形分析

在土工格室处理软土路基加固机制研究的基础上,针对土工格室加筋体的受力变形特点,将格室体视为置放于Winkler地基上的连续长梁,基于传统的弹性地基梁理论,建立考虑水平摩阻力影响的土工格室加筋体的挠曲变形微分方程,并给出其幂级数解答,从而得到了土工格室加筋体在集中荷载作用下的变形计算方法,为土工格室加固处理后的软土路基沉降计算提供了依据。理论与试验结果对比分析表明,在格室体变形分析中不计水平摩阻力的影响将夸大格室体在荷载作用下的竖向变形,计入水平摩阻力影响后理论与实测曲线吻合更好。     

高分子材料SH固沙性能与微结构相关性研究

SH作为一种环保型、节约型有机高分子固化材料,用于沙漠治理具有广阔的应用前景。采用不同浓度SH、不同加固方式对沙体进行加固,加固后沙体微结构会发生变化,其物理力学性能也会出现显著变化。通过图形处理软件对固化后沙体的SEM图像进行计算分析;利用多元逐步回归分析方法对其性能参数与微结构参数之间的相关性进行计算,并对其相关性进行分析评价。计算结果表明,二者之间存在着良好的相关关系,各向异性、等效直径、扁圆度、充填比和面积比是对固化沙土力学性质影响较为显著的5个微结构参数。从微观角度证明了SH是一种较为理想的高分子固沙材料。     

地铁盾构隧道下穿京津城际高速铁路影响分析

以北京地铁14号线马家堡东路站–永定门外大街站盾构区间隧道为背景,对隧道施工中的特级风险源--区间下穿京津城际铁路段的施工过程进行了三维仿真数值模拟。京津城际列车最大时速可达350 km/h,两轨面间的差异沉降不得大于5 mm,对地铁下穿段的施工提出了较高要求。数值模拟的计算结果表明,通过对下穿段一定范围内的土体进行注浆加固可以有效控制盾构隧道施工引起的既有铁路纵向和横向沉降及不均匀沉降,从而保证既有铁路安全运营不受影响;同时,计算获得的管片后注浆参数及盾构机内土舱压力为隧道设计、施工提供了重要的参考依据。     

Quantification of spatial gradation of slope positions

Transition between slope positions (e.g., ridge, shoulder slope, back slope, foot slope, and valley) is often gradual. Quantification of spatial transitions or spatial gradations between slope positions can increase the accuracy of terrain parameterization for geographical or ecological modeling, especially for digital soil mapping at a fine scale. Current models for characterizing the spatial gradation of slope positions based on a gridded DEM either focus solely on the parameter space or depend on too many rules defined by topographic attributes, which makes such approaches impractical. The typical locations of a slope position contain the characteristics of the slope position in both parameter space and spatial context. Thus, the spatial gradation of slope positions can be quantified by comparing terrain characteristics (spatial and parametrical) of given locations to those at typical locations. Based on this idea, this paper proposes an approach to quantifying the spatial gradation of slope positions by using typical locations as prototypes. This approach includes two parts: the first is to extract the typical locations of each slope position and treat them as the prototypes of this position; and the second is to compute the similarity between a given location and the prototypes based on both local topographic attributes and spatial context. The new approach characterizes slope position gradation in both the attribute domain (i.e., parameter space) and the spatial domain (i.e., geographic space) in an easy and practicable way. Applications show that the new approach can quantitatively describe spatial gradations among a set of slope positions. Comparison of spatial gradation of A-horizon sand percentages with the quantified spatial gradation of slope positions indicates that the latter reflects slope processes, confirming the effectiveness of the approach. The comparison of a soil subgroup map of the study area with the maximum similarity map derived from the approach also suggests that the quantified spatial gradation of slope position can be used to aid geographical modeling such as digital soil mapping.     

岩体锚固效应及锚杆的解析本构模型研究

利用Mohr-Coulomb、Hoek-Brown以及Duncan-Chang理论分别分析了块状和碎块状岩体锚固后的物理效应,通过分析认为,岩体锚固后可以有效地提高岩体的凝聚力和软弱结构面的抗剪强度,增强岩体的弹性模量,改善岩体的力学性质。通过对拉拔试验测试结果分析,在一定的假设条件下,推导了锚杆与注浆体或岩体耦合情况下的解析本构方程,并对其进行了参数分析,认为提高拉拔力、增大锚杆直径和锚固段长度可以有效地改善其锚固效果,并提出了锚固临界值的概念。在前人工作的基础上,利用提出的耦合解析本构模型建立了非耦合状态下锚杆的解析本构模型,通过计算认为,该解析模型是合理的。