Radiative Exchange in an Urban Street Canyon

The influence of building geometry on the radiation terms ofthe surface energy balance is a principal reason for surfacetemperature differences between rural and urban areas.Methods exist to calculate the radiation balance in an urban area,but their validity across the range of urban geometries andmaterials has not been carefully considered.Here the exchange of diffuse radiation in an urban street canyon isinvestigated using a method incorporating all reflections of radiation.This exact solution is compared to two commonly used approximationsthat retain either no reflections, or just one reflection of radiation.The area-averaged net radiative flux density from the facets of the canyondecreases in magnitude monotonically as the canyon aspect ratio increases.The two approximate solutions possess unphysical differences from thismonotonic decrease for high canyon aspect ratios or low materialemissivities/high material albedos.The errors of the two approximate solutions are small for near blackbodymaterials and small canyon aspect ratios but can be an order ofmagnitude for intermediate material properties and deep street canyons.Urban street canyon models need to consider at least one reflectionof radiation and multiple reflections are desirable for full applicability.     

Change of crustal gravitational potential energy in the Taiwan orogen by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence

The active convergence between the northwest corner of the Philippine Sea Plate and the southeast margin of the Eurasian Plate has given rise to the Taiwan mountain-building and produced numerous earthquakes. Among the earthquakes, the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake is the largest one recorded in the century. In this study, we examine the crustal gravitational potential energy (GPE) change in the Taiwan orogen caused by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence, which was catalogued by the regional broadband seismometer array for a whole year. As a result, we find that the crust was going up and down randomly during the earthquake sequence, but an overall cumulative gain of the crustal GPE, +1.82×10¹⁶ J, was rapidly achieved in 1 month after the main shock. The crustal GPE was nearly still afterwards and reached +1.90×10¹⁶ J in 1 year. Spatially, although the main surface faulting has occurred in western Taiwan, the crustal GPE gain is mainly distributed in central Taiwan at the area where the existing crustal GPE is high and the existing lithospheric GPE is relatively low. The crustal GPE loss by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence can also be observed and is generally distributed at both sides of the crustal GPE gain area. The crustal GPE gain mainly found in central Taiwan corroborates that the uplift of the Taiwan orogen is principally taking place in central Taiwan, rather than in the more hazardous western Taiwan.     

A new method for testing pile by sin- gle-impact energy and P-S curve

Introduction Through many year's practices by vast numbers of scientific and technological workers andefforts from all aspects, the dynamic testing method of high-low strain has formally entered intothe technical code of foundation pile test of construction at last (The Industry Standards of thePeople's Republic of China, 2003). The striking mode of the dynamic testing method of high strainis stipulated as hammer in the code, the striking of rocket can also be used. The latter is widely…     

Frequency domain modal analysis of earthquake input energy to highly damped passive control structures

A new complex modal analysis‐based method is developed in the frequency domain for efficient computation of the earthquake input energy to a highly damped linear elastic passive control structure. The input energy to the structure during an earthquake is an important measure of seismic demand. Because of generality and applicability to non‐linear structures, the earthquake input energy has usually been computed in the time domain. It is shown here that the formulation of the earthquake input energy in the frequency domain is essential for deriving a bound on the earthquake input energy for a class of ground motions and for understanding the robustness of passively controlled structures to disturbances with various frequency contents. From the viewpoint of computational efficiency, a modal analysis‐based method is developed. The importance of overdamped modes in the energy computation of specific non‐proportionally damped models is demonstrated by comparing the energy transfer functions and the displacement transfer functions. Through numerical examinations for four recorded ground motions, it is shown that the modal analysis‐based method in the frequency domain is very efficient in the computation of the earthquake input energy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic tests on reinforced concrete and steel frames retrofitted with dissipative braces

Seismic tests have been conducted on two 3‐storey structures protected with pressurized fluid‐viscous spring damper devices. One of the structures was a reinforced concrete frame with clay elements in the slabs, while the other one was a steel frame with steel/concrete composite slabs. The spring dampers were installed through K bracing in between the floors. The tests were performed by means of the pseudodynamic method, which allowed the use of large and full‐size specimens, and by implementing a specific compensation strategy for the strain‐rate effect at the devices. The test results allowed the verification of the adequacy of the attachment system as well as the comparison of the behaviour of the unprotected buildings with several protected configurations, showing the benefits of the application of the devices and the characteristics of their performance. The response of the protected structures was always safer than that of the unprotected ones mainly due to a significant increase of equivalent damping. The increase in the damping ratio depends on the level of deformation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1998年南海夏季风爆发前后区域动能收支研究

利用1998年南海季风试验(SCSMEX)资料和区域动能收支方程，对南海南部和北部两个区域该年夏季风爆发前后的区域总动能和区域扰动动能收支进行了诊断分析。结果表明，南海北区夏季风爆发前后动能主要在高层制造，大部分动能被摩擦消耗，南区夏季风爆发前后动能主要在高层被破坏，摩擦项充当动能源。扰动动能主要在高层和部分在低层制造。在此期间，南海地区一直向邻近区域输出动能。     

北半球海冰强迫作用下大气可预报性研究

使用LASG/IAP GOALS耦合模式中的全球大气环流模式分量AGCMR15L9的计算结果，在其他外强迫维持气候值不变的情况下，用方差分析的方法，以外部方差与总方差之比R_e作为衡量标准，考察该模式关于海冰的季节和跨季节潜在可预报性的大小。结果发现，从总体上看，北半球海冰变化所造成的潜在可预报性较小，只有在大气低层的一些气候要素，如温度、湿度的结果中，才存在R_e＞0.5的现象。潜在可预报性结果的局地特征比较明显，高值往往发生在海冰年际变率大的区域里。与中低纬海温在中高纬地区的影响相比，不排除海冰的作用更大的可能性。另外，如果分区域看，北半球某些区域的海冰，在若干挑选出的其区域海冰面积发生大异常年份中的潜在可预报性可能会比不做挑选的总体结果要大。这说明北半球某些区域海冰在面积发生较大异常的时候，可能对同期或（及）后期环流有着比较重要的影响。     

河流调整中的熵、熵产生和能耗率的变化

河流是一个真正的开放系统,而不是孤立系统或封闭系统。运用经典热力学和非平衡态热力学基本原理,分析研究了河流调整中的熵、熵产生和能耗率的变化。指出:熵和熵产生是两个不同的概念;最小熵产生原理等价于最小能耗率原理;冲积河流在调整过程中遵循最小熵产生原理或最小能耗率原理,而不是最大熵原理。