Simplified Method for the Assessment of the Stiffness Anisotropy of Rocks at Small Strains

Summary A new, practically applicable method for characterizing the stiffness anisotropy of rocks is presented. The anisotropy of geo-materials is often ignored in engineering applications, with potentially serious ramifications, because of the number of parameters required for characterization. The elastic anisotropy has often been considered to be a function of mathematical symmetry, and the restrictions due to layering, microcracking and granularity of the materials have not been considered in the assessment of the anisotropy. The practicality of the method proposed here is achieved by rationally reducing the number of independent anisotropy parameters, typically 9 for orthotropic anisotropy, to a system of 4 independent parameters through a systematic theoretical and experimental analysis of these structural restrictions. These 4 parameters are shown to be sufficient for describing the anisotropy of some rocks and sands at small strains, and parameter determination by back-analysis is demonstrated to be stable using appropriate measurement systems involving 9 elastic wave velocities even when the directions of anisotropic axes are unknown and the velocity data contains appreciable error.     

Mise au point d'un milieu de culture pour l'étude de l'altération de silicates en présence de Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The influence of microorganisms on mineral alteration is not easy to determine in environmental conditions, because of the difficulty to raise for comparison purposes an identical but abiotic system. Another problem in this context is the choice of reliable tracers to evaluate the alteration rate of materials during in vitro experiments. To face such difficulties, we elaborated a defined medium allowing both the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a precise measurement of the elements solubilized from the minerals. Thanks to this medium, we were able to quantitatively determine the amounts of major elements solubilized from the materials in the presence of bacterial growth, compared to a sterile system. Moreover, the analysis by ICP-MS of trace elements was possible after a chromatographic treatment, which selectively eliminated 99% of the sodium content of the medium. To cite this article: G. Aouad et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

Genealogy of hypoplasticity and barodesy

This article is an attempt at providing an insight into the development of hypoplasticity (including barodesy, which is a recent development of hypoplasticity) as a theory elaborated since 1977, when the first version was published by the first author, until present. The multiplicity of the many versions published since then is hard to overlook. This article presents a review and insight into the evolution of a theory and the struggle to formulate a satisfactory constitutive law. Among the many proposed versions, we focus on those ones that can be seen as changes of paradigm. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Variability in bedform morphology and kinematics with transport stage

Bedform geometry is widely recognized to be a function of transport stage. Bedform aspect ratio (height/length) increases with transport stage, reaches a maximum, then decreases as bedforms washout to a plane bed. Bedform migration rates are also linked to bedform geometry, in so far as smaller bedforms in coarser sediment tend to migrate faster than larger bedforms in finer sediment. However, how bedform morphology (height, length and shape) and kinematics (translation and deformation) change with transport stage and suspension have not been examined. A series of experiments is presented where initial flow depth and grain size were held constant and the transport stage was varied to produce bedload dominated, mixed‐load dominated and suspended‐load dominated conditions. The results show that the commonly observed pattern in bedform aspect ratio occurs because bedform height increases then decreases with transport stage, against a continuously increasing bedform length. Bedform size variability increased with transport stage, leading to less uniform bedform fields at higher transport stage. Total translation‐related and deformation‐related sediment fluxes all increased with transport stage. However, the relative contribution to the total flux changed. At the bedload dominated stage, translation‐related and deformation‐related flux contributed equally to the total flux. As the transport stage increased, the fraction of the total load contributed by translation increased and the fraction contributed by deformation declined because the bedforms got bigger and moved faster. At the suspended‐load dominated transport stage, the deformation flux increased and the translation flux decreased as a fraction of the total load, approaching one and zero, respectively, as bedforms washed out to a plane bed.     

Provenance of Holocene beach sand in the Western Iberian margin: the use of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test for the deciphering of sediment recycling in a modern coastal system

Detrital zircons from Holocene beach sand and igneous zircons from the Cretaceous syenite forming Cape Sines (Western Iberian margin) were dated using laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry. The U–Pb ages obtained were used for comparison with previous radiometric data from Carboniferous greywacke, Pliocene–Pleistocene sand and Cretaceous syenite forming the sea cliff at Cape Sines and the contiguous coast. New U–Pb dating of igneous morphologically simple and complex zircons from the syenite of the Sines pluton suggests that the history of zircon crystallization was more extensive (ca 87 to 74 Ma), in contrast to the findings of previous geochronology studies (ca 76 to 74 Ma). The U–Pb ages obtained in Holocene sand revealed a wide interval, ranging from the Cretaceous to the Archean, with predominance of Cretaceous (37%), Palaeozoic (35%) and Neoproterozoic (19%) detrital‐zircon ages. The paucity of round to sub‐rounded grains seems to indicate a short transportation history for most of the Cretaceous zircons (ca 95 to 73 Ma) which are more abundant in the beach sand that was sampled south of Cape Sines. Comparative analysis using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistical method, analysing sub‐populations separately, suggests that the zircon populations of the Carboniferous and Cretaceous rocks forming the sea cliff were reproduced faithfully in Quaternary sand, indicating sediment recycling. The similarity of the pre‐Cretaceous ages (>ca 280 Ma) of detrital zircons found in Holocene sand, as compared with Carboniferous greywacke and Pliocene–Pleistocene sand, provides support for the hypothesis that detritus was reworked into the beach from older sedimentary rocks exposed along the sea cliff. The largest percentage of Cretaceous zircons (<ca 95 Ma) found in Holocene sand, as compared with Pliocene–Pleistocene sand (secondary recycled source), suggests that the Sines pluton was the one of the primary sources that became progressively more exposed to erosion during Quaternary uplift. This work highlights the application of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov method in comparison of zircon age populations used to identify provenance and sediment recycling in modern and ancient detrital sedimentary sequences.     

BDS中长距离非差实时动态厘米级定位算法

针对BDS常规实时动态定位(RTK)中,随着流动站与参考站间的距离增加,大气延迟误差的空间相关性大大降低,影响了整周模糊度的快速解算和流动站位置信息的解算精度问题。该文研究了一种基于非差观测误差的BDS中长距离常规RTK定位算法,采用非差误差改正方法为流动站提供误差改正,利用参考站的非差误差改正数以单颗卫星为对象进行误差改正。对电离层延迟误差和相对天顶对流层延迟误差进行参数估计,处理电离层延迟误差和对流层延迟误差的影响。最后通过BDS实测数据对该算法进行了算法验证和结果分析。实验结果表明,该算法可以实现BDS中长距离常规RTK的快速定位,并获得厘米级定位精度。     

The application of remote sensing data to diagnose soil degradation in the Dakhla depression – Western Desert,Egypt

Dakhla depression in Egypt’s Western Desert is experiencing two soil degradation processes, notably: soil salinization and sand encroachment. The present study aimed to diagnose the severity of these processes using remote sensing. Soil salinity was determined by spectral regression analysis between tasselled cap spectral transform extracted from a Landsat-8 image acquired in September 2013 along with synchronized soil salinity measurements. Assessment of sand advance rate was conducted by temporal change detection of brilliant crescentic sand dune visualized by Google Earth in old (2002) and recent (2013) images. Results showed that salinized soils (dS/m4<) represent 91% of bare lands and salinization is attributed to aridity, topography and poor drainage. Barchan dunes north and south of Abu Tartur escarpment moved at rates of 5.9 and 3.6 m/year, respectively. The escarpment protected the majority of the depression from massive dune invasion. However, sand encroachment is clearly observed west of the depression.     

Modification of strain wedge method for lateral soil-pile interaction in sandEI北大核心CSCD

A modified strain wedge (SW) method for analyzing the behavior of laterally loaded single piles in sand is proposed. The modified model assumes that the lateral displacements of a pile behind the three-dimensional passive soil wedge are nonlinear, which makes the horizontal soil strain variable with depths instead of a constant value in the original strain wedge model, and also employs two different hyperbolic models, one for describing horizontal stress increment-strain behavior of soil in the wedge, and the other for describing the shear stress-displacement property at the interface between soil and pile shafts. An example is analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the modified method, and a good agreement is obtained. Finally, the effects of modifications on the lateral bearing capacity of pile shafts are discussed. The results show that the problem of overestimating the lateral bearing capacity of piles with strain wedge method can be ameliorated by introducing the assumption of nonlinear lateral displacements of piles. It makes the SW method more convenient and effective in analyzing the behavior of laterally loaded piles by introducing the new relationships of horizontal stress increment-strain and shear stress-displacement.     

Characteristics and Origin of Tight Oil Accumulations in the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation of the Ordos Basin, North-Central China

The Upper Triassic oil accumulations in the Ordos Basin is the most successful tight oil play in China,with average porosity values of less than 10% and permeability values below 1.0 mD.This study investigated the geological characteristics and origin of the tight oil accumulations in the Chang 6 member of the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation in the Shanbei area based on over 50,000 petrological,source-rock analysis,well logging and production data.The tight oil accumulation of the Chang 6 member is distributed continuously in the basin slope and the centre of the basin.The oilwater relationships are complex.Laumontite dissolution pores are the most important storage spaces,constituting 30%-60% of total porosity and showing a strong positive relationship with oil production.The pore-throat diameter is less than 1 μm,and the calculated critical height of the oil column is much larger than the tight sand thickness,suggesting that the buoyancy was probably of limited importance for oil migration.The pressure difference between the source rocks and sandstone reservoirs is inferred to have provided driving force for hydrocarbon migration.Two factors of source-reservoir configuration and laumontite dissolution contributed to the formation of the Chang 6 tight oil accumulations.Intense hydrocarbon generation and continuous sand bodies close to the hydrocarbon kitchen are the foundation for the large-scale oil distribution.Dissolution of feldspar-laumontite during the process of organic matter evolution generated abundant secondary pores and improved the reservoir quality.     

强壮前沟藻(Amphidinium carterae Hulbert)在多重逆境条件下的生长和生理响应

尽管单一逆境条件对浮游植物产生的影响已被广泛重视,然而对于多重逆境条件对藻细胞生长生理的研究仍有空白。本研究通过测定强壮前沟藻(Amphidinium carterae Hulbert)光密度(OD750)、叶绿素a含量(chl a)、光合作用效率(F_v/F_m)、碳氮比(C/N)等多个生理指标,分析其在9种环境下(常温光照、低温和低温黑暗三种物理环境,结合全营养、缺氮、缺磷三种营养状态)对多重逆境的生长和生理响应。研究结果表明,在多重逆境条件下,单一物理逆境因素(低温或黑暗)较氮限制或磷限制对藻细胞生长和生理的不利影响更为显著。营养限制并同低温环境双重作用对生物量和碳氮比产生显著性影响(P0.01)。此外,低温和黑暗条件耦合作用下,SYTOX Green染色强度处于较低水平,chl a稳定、F_v/F_m有所升高,强壮前沟藻在逆境环境下作为群体的衰亡得以缓解。