The Fourth James K. Mitchell Lecture: The CPT in offshore soil investigations - a historic perspective

For the last 40 years, the CPT has played a key role in offshore soil investigations, mainly in connection with oil and gas development, but also for other purposes. The offshore application of CPT has been an important factor with regards to development of equipment, data processing and interpretation. Each of the following aspects are discussed in terms of historic development, present status and future challenges:

- Deployment method and equipment.

- Penetrometer design and construction.

- Data acquisition, processing and quality control.

- Standards and guidelines.

- Interpretation of results and application in foundation design.

It is shown that these developments have greatly enhanced the reliability and applicability of the use of the CPT in soil investigations and design. However, there are still important challenges to be faced in the future     

A performance-based framework for assessing liquefaction potential based on CPT data

This article describes a new performance-based approach for evaluating the return period of seismic soil liquefaction based on standard penetration test (SPT) and cone penetration test (CPT) data. The conventional liquefaction evaluation methods consider a single acceleration level and magnitude and these approaches fail to take into account the uncertainty in earthquake loading. The seismic hazard analysis based on the probabilistic method clearly shows that a particular acceleration value is being contributed by different magnitudes with varying probability. In the new method presented in this article, the entire range of ground shaking and the entire range of earthquake magnitude are considered and the liquefaction return period is evaluated based on the SPT and CPT data. This article explains the performance-based methodology for the liquefaction analysis – starting from probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) for the evaluation of seismic hazard and the performance-based method to evaluate the liquefaction return period. A case study has been done for Bangalore, India, based on SPT data and converted CPT values. The comparison of results obtained from both the methods have been presented. In an area of 220 km² in Bangalore city, the site class was assessed based on large number of borehole data and 58 Multi-channel analysis of surface wave survey. Using the site class and peak acceleration at rock depth from PSHA, the peak ground acceleration at the ground surface was estimated using probabilistic approach. The liquefaction analysis was done based on 450 borehole data obtained in the study area. The results of CPT match well with the results obtained from similar analysis with SPT data.     

移动终端地理信息系统在广东省政务管理中的应用

随着科技的发展,移动终端(手机、平板电脑等)已逐渐成为了人们日常生活工作不可或缺的工具,利用移动终端更好的共享地理信息不论是对政务工作还是日常生活都会起到事半功倍的作用。本文主要介绍通过移动终端IOS和Android平台实现广东省地理信息公共平台的开发以及应用情况。     

基于流变仪测试海底浅表层软黏土不排水强度研究

鉴于海底浅表层软黏土强度测试精细化程度不足的现状,引入流体测试中的流变仪,对青岛海域海底浅表层软黏土开展多组原状和重塑试样的不排水剪切强度试验,通过对比静力触探和微型十字板测试结果,验证了流变仪测试方法的有效性。基于流变仪试验结果,揭示了海底软黏土原状和重塑状态下不排水剪切破坏模式,探讨了海底软黏土不排水剪切强度和灵敏度随埋深及液性指数的发展演变趋势,评价了软黏土的结构性特征。最后,引入含水率与液限之比对海底浅表层软黏土重塑不排水剪切强度进行了归一化分析,为近海海洋开发活动提供技术支撑。     

地震台阵流动地震仪的检测与标定方法研究

流动地震仪组成的台阵观测系统已经成为地下结构、物性探测的基本工具,高质量观测数据的获取是以地震仪的性能为基础的。本文结合中国地震科学探测台阵系统建设与维护实践,介绍了科学探测台阵系统采用的几项检测标定技术,包括超低频振动台标定、仪器一致性组网检测、白噪声标定和现场快速仪器检测,形成了一套适合地震流动台阵仪器的检测标定方法,并在观测实践中获得较好的应用。     

某石油化工场地土层挥发性有机物的污染特征

在调查华北平原一个污染年限超过35年的石油化工场地时,采用便携式仪器土层测气方法,快速、准确地测定了场地内40多个钻孔不同深度土层中挥发性有机物(VOCs)的浓度。基于对场地地质水文地质条件的认识,以及通过对大量数据的分析对比和应用空间变异分析方法,得出了对场地土层介质中VOCs污染特征的如下认识:(1)土层VOCs浓度的垂向变化可概括为污染源淋滤型、包气带扩散污染型、地下水波动带污染型和混合污染型四种污染类型;(2)在包气带砂土层和粉土层中,VOCs的扩散规律可近似用指数模型描述;(3)包气带土层中VOCs优先积聚在渗透性强的砂性土层中,砂土层中VOCs浓度是粉土层中VOCs浓度的1.5～12倍,平均3.76倍;(4)土层VOCs浓度的水平变异性表现为包气带土层的变异性要比地下水波动带土层大,且水平变异性能在25m尺度内得到充分显示;而土层VOCs浓度的垂向变异性随地而异,变化复杂,很难用统一的一个量化尺度来表征。本文对这一典型污染场地的剖析,有助于从事污染场地调查人员认识我国华北平原石油化工类场地的污染特征,并为调查与治理类似污染场地提供技术依据。     

Using three different approaches of OSL for the study of young fluvial sediments at the coastal plain of the Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin,southern Mexico

We use three different approaches of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to study young fluvial sediments located at the main channels of one of the largest fluvial systems of North America: the Usumacinta–Grijalva. We use the pulsed photo‐stimulated luminescence (PPSL) system also known as portable OSL reader, full OSL dating and profiling OSL dating in samples extracted from vertical sediment profiles (n = 9) of riverbanks to detect changes in depositional rates of sediments and to obtain the age of the deposits. The results of the PPSL system show that the luminescence signals of vertical sediment profiles highly scattered from the top to the bottom contrast with the luminescence pattern observed on well‐reset sequences of fluvial deposits where luminescence increase from the top to the bottom of the profile. The profiling and full OSL ages yielded large uncertainty values on their ages. Based on the inconsistencies observed in both ages and luminescence patterns of profiles we suggest that these fluvial deposits were not fully reset during their transport. As an explanation, we propose that in the Usumacinta and Grijalva rivers the cyclonic storms during the wet season promote the entrainment of large volumes of sediments due to high‐erosional episodes around the basin resulting from hyper‐concentrated and turbid flows. We conclude that the PPSL, profiling and full OSL dating of sediments are useful tools to quantify and to assess the depositional patterns in fluvial settings during the Holocene. These techniques also can yield information about sites where increases in the sediment load of rivers may produce poorly resetting of grains affecting the results of OSL dating. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A workflow for exploration sampling in regolith-dominated terranes using portable X-ray fluorescence: comparison with laboratory data and a case study

This paper presents and validates a workflow that provides for the rapid collection of reliable and robust portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) data in a regolith-dominated exploration setting. The analysis of regolith material by pXRF is challenging because of its variable Fe content (e.g. 0 to >70 wt%) that results in large matrix effects, which can be mitigated with appropriate standards. Here, we present a dataset from the Western Mount Isa Inlier, Queensland, Australia, comprising soil, lag, rock and rotary air blast (RAB) samples. In the soil dataset, comparison of the laboratory and pXRF datasets for Cu, Pb and Zn have R² > 0.9, and Cu and Zn fall within 2% of the laboratory data, while Pb is 77% less than the corresponding laboratory analyses. Iron, Al, K and Ca by pXRF perform reasonably well when compared with the laboratory data (R² = 0.59 for Al, R² > 0.9 for Fe, K and Ca, <25% variation from the laboratory data), while Mn, Rb and Sr have very good correlations (<8% variation) with R² > 0.94. Titanium, Zr, Ni, Cr and As have poorer comparisons. Overall, the RAB dataset shows similar trends with Cu overestimated by 17%, Zn underestimated by 4% and Pb overestimated by 69%; R² for all elements is >0.92. Since no suitable standards are available, the solid rock dataset was uncorrected; despite this limitation, the dataset shows good correlations with the laboratory data for many elements, and Cu is overestimated by 9.8% with an R² = 0.87. The poor analytical performance of Pb in all datasets is associated with erroneous Bi concentrations being reported by the pXRF unit. When high Fe and Pb amounts are present in a sample, erroneous Pb and Bi concentrations are reported, owing to a pile-up of the Fe K_α peak (6.405 keV) at ～12.8 keV, which is proximal to the Pb L_β (12.614 keV) and Bi L_β (13.023 keV) peaks. Despite the care that is required in validating data, by using pXRF there is substantial opportunity for dynamic exploration campaigns in regolith-dominated terranes with rapid turnaround times, additional elements that may not otherwise be analysed for and low analytical costs. Decisions to stop, continue or infill drill holes while the drill rig is present can be made in near-real time, and not after laboratory results are available and the drill rig has left the area.     

Assessment of liquefaction evaluation procedures and severity index frameworks at Christchurch strong motion stations

The objective of the study presented herein is to assess three commonly used CPT-based liquefaction evaluation procedures and three liquefaction severity index frameworks using data from the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence. Specifically, post-event field observations, ground motion recordings, and results from a recently completed extensive geotechnical site investigation programme at selected strong motion stations (SMSs) in the city of Christchurch and surrounding towns are used herein. Unlike similar studies that used data from free-field sites, accelerogram characteristics at the SMS locations can be used to assess the performance of liquefaction evaluation procedures prior to their use in the computation of surficial manifestation severity indices. Results from this study indicate that for cases with evidence of liquefaction triggering in the accelerograms, the majority of liquefaction evaluation procedures yielded correct predictions, regardless of whether surficial manifestation of liquefaction was evident or not. For cases with no evidence of liquefaction in the accelerograms (and no observed surficial evidence of liquefaction triggering), the majority of liquefaction evaluation procedures predicted liquefaction was triggered. When all cases are used to assess the performance of liquefaction severity index frameworks, a poor correlation is shown between the observed severity of liquefaction surface manifestation and the calculated severity indices. However, only using those cases where the liquefaction evaluation procedures yielded correct predictions, there is an improvement in the correlation, with the Liquefaction Severity Number (LSN) being the best performing of the frameworks investigated herein. However scatter in the relationship between the observed and calculated surficial manifestation still remains for all liquefaction severity index frameworks.