ANALYSIS OF PILES USED FOR SLOPE STABILIZATION

Piles used for the stabilization of slopes have to be adequately designed to resist the induced lateral loads due to the movement of the unstable slope. In this paper, a numerical method is presented for the analysis of this problem. In this approach, the piles are modelled using beam finite elements. The soil response at the individual piles is modelled using the modulus of subgrade reaction and pile–soil–pile interaction considered using the theory of elasticity. Two case histories, one for single pile and the other for pile group, are analysed which show that the numerical model can predict the general characteristics of the piles reasonably well. The study suggests that the design of the piles based on the computed response from single pile analysis, ignoring group effects, may be unduly conservative.     

纤维对石灰改良膨胀土性质的影响分析

首先对膨胀土基本性质做了试验分析,通过天然膨胀土和掺人纤维前后的石灰土的击实试验,得出了掺人少量纤维对石灰土的最优含水率和最大干密度影响很小.通过有荷膨胀率试验,得出了纤维能够抑制石灰土的膨胀性,纤维掺人量在0.05%～0.1%之间时,线膨胀率随纤维掺人量的增多而降低显著,在0.1%～0.2%之间时降低幅度减小.由无侧...     

酸性富水软土地基对深层搅拌法加固效果的影响

针对工程中出现的深层搅拌桩深部桩身质量不合格问题，结合水泥系深层搅拌法加固地基的作用机理，分析探讨了酸性富水地基土对水泥土凝结强度的不利影响，提出了改进意见。     

Can dynamite-blasted reefs recover? A novel, low-tech approach to stimulating natural recovery in fish and coral populations

Throughout Southeast Asia, blast fishing creates persistent rubble fields with low coral cover and depauperate fish communities. We stabilized a 20-year-old rubble field in a Marine Protected Area in the Philippines, using plastic mesh and rock piles in replicated 17.5m(2) plots, thereby increasing topographic complexity, fish habitat, and recruitment substrate surface area. Multivariate analysis revealed fish community shifts within the rehabilitated area from that characteristic of rubble fields to one similar to the adjacent healthy reef within three years, as measured by changes in fish abundance and body size. Coral recruitment and percent cover increased over time, with 63.5% recruit survivorship within plots, compared with 6% on rubble. Our low-cost approach created a stable substrate favoring natural recovery processes. Both rehabilitation and the elimination of poaching were integral to success, emphasizing the synergism between the two and the need to incorporate both when considering mitigation.     

Risk mitigation and the social cost of carbon

The social cost of carbon – i.e., the marginal present-value cost imposed by greenhouse gas emissions – is determined by a complex interaction between factual assumptions, modeling methods, and value judgments. Among the most crucial factors is society's willingness to tolerate potentially catastrophic environmental risks. To explore this issue, the present analysis employs a stochastic climate–economy model that accounts for uncertainties in baseline economic growth, baseline emissions, greenhouse gas mitigation costs, carbon cycling, climate sensitivity, and climate change damages. In this model, preferences are specified to reflect the high degree of risk aversion revealed by private investment decisions, signaled by the large observed gap between the average rates of return paid by safe and risky financial instruments. In contrast, most climate–economy models assume much lower risk aversion. Given high risk aversion, the analysis finds that investment in climate stabilization yields especially large net benefits by forestalling low-probability threats to long-run human well-being. Accordingly, the social cost of carbon attains the markedly high value of $25,700 per metric ton of carbon dioxide in a baseline scenario in which emissions are unregulated. This value falls to just $4 per ton as the stringency of control measures is successively increased. These results cast doubt on the idea that the social cost of carbon takes on a uniquely defined, objective value that is independent of policy decisions. This does not, however, rule out the use of carbon prices to achieve the benefits of climate stabilization using least-cost mitigation measures.     

CHANNEL EROSION DAMAGES AND PROTECTION MEASURES IN SOUTHEAST ARIZONA

1INTRODUCTIONThesouthwesternregionoftheUnitedStates,includingSoutheastArizona,ischaracterizedbyasemiaridclimatewithhotsummers,mildwinters,andephemeralstreamsdrainingsparselyvegetatedareas.ChannelmorphologyoftheephemeralstreamsinSoutheastArizonaisinfluencedbybothlateralandverticalchannelchangesoccurringduringmajorfloods.Lateralchannelchangesoccurinthreewaysbankerosion,meandermigration,andchannelavulsion.Verticalchannelchangesinclude,beddegradationoraggradation,andmayoccurseparatelyorinco…     

A Comprehensive Method for Fractionating Soil Organic Matter Not Protected and Protected from Decomposition by Physical and Chemical Mechanisms

The objective of this work was to describe a method for isolating meaningful and measurable soil organic matter (SOM) pools that differ in the mechanisms by which they are protected from decomposition. The proposed method is appropriate for soil C stabilization and sequestration studies. Unlike previous fractionation schemes, this procedure allows free SOM located between aggregates (unprotected C pool) and SOM occluded within both macroaggregates and microaggregates (C weakly and strongly protected by physical mechanisms, respectively) to be recovered separately, freed from the soil mineral matrix and the mineral‐associated SOM pool (C pool protected by chemical mechanisms) and thus well suited to advanced chemical characterization by ¹³C‐NMR. Briefly, free SOM is isolated by an initial density separation. Stable macroaggregates are broken up into stable microaggregates and intra‐macroaggregate SOM, which is then separated by density. Finally, intra‐microaggregate SOM is isolated from mineral‐associated SOM by a third density separation after ultrasonic disruption. The SOM dissolved during the fractionation procedure is also recovered. Results obtained on soil samples with contrasting textures suggested that clay content induces a decrease of the proportion of free organic C and an increase of mineral‐associated organic C content. Free SOM is characterized by a marked presence of undecayed organic material and biologically labile substances, such as carbohydrates and proteins. In contrast, SOM occluded within aggregates, especially within microaggregates, represents a more decomposed fraction, relatively enriched in unsubstituted‐aliphatic material, most probably lipid biopolymers.     

Finite element analysis of steep excavation slope failure by CFS theory

The distribution of Coulomb failure stress (CFS) change in the steep excavation slope is calculated by finite element method in this paper, and the failure mechanics under different conditions have been investigated. Comparing the CFSs before and after the slope excavation (stress loading and unloading processes), the dangerous internal zone and the most likely failure external area are attained. Given the shear cracks on the top surface while tensile stress or cracks along the toe of the slope, we analyze the high cutting-angle steep slope in Kaixian county of the Three Gorges Reservoir region. We bring forward that the peak value of CFS after excavation can reach to the order of 0.1 MPa, which is greatly higher than that of before. Our preliminary results are useful for optimizing the reinforcement structure during the steep slope stabilization engineering.     

酸性矿山废水中生物成因次生高铁矿物的形成及环境工程意义

酸性矿山废水(acid mine drainage,AMD)是一类pH低并含有大量有毒金属元素的废水。AMD及受其影响的环境中次生高铁矿物类型主要包括羟基硫酸高铁矿物(如黄铁矾和施威特曼石等)和一些含水氧化铁矿物(如针铁矿和水铁矿等),而且这些矿物在不同条件下会发生相转变,如施氏矿物向针铁矿或黄铁矾矿物相转化。基于酸性环境中生物成因次生矿物的形成会"自然钝化"或"清除"废水中铁和有毒金属这一现象所获得的启示,提出利用这些矿物作为环境吸附材料去除地下水中砷,不但吸附量大(如施氏矿物对As的吸附可高达120mg/g),而且可直接吸附As(III),还几乎不受地下水中其他元素影响。利用AMD环境中羟基硫酸高铁矿物形成的原理,可将其应用于AMD石灰中和主动处理系统中,构成"强化微生物氧化诱导成矿-石灰中和"的联合主动处理系统,以提高AMD处理效果和降低石灰用量。利用微生物强化氧化与次生矿物晶体不断生长的原理构筑生物渗透性反应墙(PRB)并和石灰石渗透沟渠耦联,形成新型的AMD联合被动处理系统,这将有助于大幅度增加处理系统的寿命和处理效率。此外,文中还探讨了上述生物成因矿物形成在AMD和地下水处理方面应用的优点以及今后需要继续研究的问题。