On incipient motion of silt-sand under combined action of waves and currents

Sediment incipient motion is a fundamental issue in sediment transport theory and engineering practice. Silt has transitional behavior between cohesive and non-cohesive sediment and its incipient motion is still poorly understood. This study aims to find an expression for incipient motion from silt to sand from a unified perspective and analysis. From the analysis of forces, using the derivation method for the Shields curve, an expression for sediment incipient motion is proposed for both silt and sand under conditions of combined waves and currents. The differences and similarities in the sediment motion threshold were analyzed under the effects of waves and currents, and fine and coarse sediment. The Shields number was revised by introducing the cohesive force and additional static water pressure, which indicates that this study could be seen as an extension of the Shields curve method for silt. A number of experimental datasets as well as field data were used to verify the formula. The effect of bulk density on fine sediment was discussed and tested using experimental data.     

中国西北不同沙源地区起沙阈值的对比分析与研究

沙尘粒子进入大气所受到的空气动力因子和阴力因子分别用摩擦速度u,和临界摩擦速度u(?)来定量表示。临界摩擦速度是影响沙尘释放和输送的重要参数。文中利用2004年春季浑善达克沙地和2006年春季黄土高原与戈壁3种不同沙源地区开展的微气象学和沙尘暴观测资料,分析了沙尘天气过程中沙尘浓度随摩擦速度的变化关系,估算了临界起沙摩擦速度u(?),并与不同学者给出的结果进行对比。结果表明:沙尘天气过程中,临近起沙阶段,沙尘浓度较低,摩擦速度增加快,为起沙阶段提供了利的动力条件;起沙阶段,动力和热力湍流混合使得沙尘浓度迅速升高;沙尘天气减弱阶段,由于重力沉隆作用,沙尘浓度随摩擦速度近似呈线性递减关系。以空气中的沙尘浓度大于200μg/m~3作为起沙的判据条件,得到浑善达克沙地和戈壁地区的临界起沙摩擦速度分别为0.6和0.45 m/s。由于受地形及非均匀下垫面的影响,黄土高原的临界起沙摩擦速度与风向有关。西北风反映了来自西北方向毛乌素沙地的影响,u(?)为0.35 m/s,偏南风时对应观测站点南部黄土丘陵沟壑区的起沙特征,u(?)为0.7 m/s。黄土丘陵沟壑区的地表粗糙度值和土壤粒子间的相互作用力较大,从而导致了较大的临界起沙摩擦速度。不同的起沙阈值条件和风速频率分布与沙尘释放能力的不同相对应。     

A statistical assessment on the stochastic relationship between biomarker concentrations and environmental exposures

Biological monitoring has gradually developed into a powerful tool in the identification and quantification of exposures to occupational and/or environmental hazards in environmental and occupational health studies. Aggregate individual exposure to pollutants and evidence for exploring dose-response relationship in the human bodies can be assessed through biomarker measurements. The existence of inter-individual differences among a study population, however, often hampers the relationship assessment between exposure and the biomarker. In this paper, a statistical random effects model identified from a simplified one-compartment pharmacokinetic model is applied to establish the dynamic relationship between a biomarker and its corresponding external exposure. This model avoids the complex parameter estimation problem encountered using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model, and incorporates inter-individual variations often ignored in the usual regression approach. In addition, the relevant parameters for the generic kinetic process can be estimated directly. As a guideline for preliminary sampling strategy, tables of required sample sizes and the number of repeated measurements to achieve the desired statistical power and test efficiency are given. The currently established biological exposure indices (BEIs) for benzene and methyl chloroform are employed to illustrate the impact of inter- individual variations on the percentages of protection for workers exposed to the threshold limit value (TLV) of the corresponding chemical.This research was partially supported by the Environmental Protection Agency of Taiwan (Contract No. EPA-88-E102–03–003).     

Wind tunnel modeling and measurements of the flux of wind-blown sand

This paper presents a way to empirically fit experimental data for the horizontal flux of various sizes of wind-blown dry sand using data from wind tunnel experiments. We measured vertical wind profiles to derive threshold shear velocity and estimated shear velocity and the flux of sand mass as a function of the height for nine different grain sizes. We propose a fitting model based on the experimental data and a least-squares method and derive an explicit form of sand flux as a function of height and shear velocity for these grain sizes. We also obtained an explicit form of the empirical equation for the measurement of sand transport per unit width and unit time by integrating the empirical equation as a function of height. Finally, we compared the effectiveness of Bagnold's equation, Kawamura's expression and Lettau and Lettau's equation, for predicting sand transport with the results of our empirical equation. The results show that the transport predicted by all of the equations were always lower than the measured results from the empirical equation for all grain sizes and shear velocities. However, the empirical equation matched Bagnold's equation, Kawamura's equation, and Lettau and Lettau's equation if the coefficients in these equations were adjusted instead of using their original coefficients. The empirical equation for sand transport in the present study contradicts previous conclusions generated by Bagnold's equation, which predict that for a given wind drag, the transport of a coarse sand is greater than that of a fine sand.     

A model for presentation of seismic pore water pressures

A model for presentation of pore water pressures induced in sand samples during cyclic undrained testing is described. The proposed model belongs to a class of so-called ‘damage parameter models’, which correlate the pore pressure rise with a parameter based on an accumulated variable during testing. The concept of threshold strain is also incorporated in the model. The model has been verified on several series of published cyclic test data. Its parameters lie in a narrow band for a wide range of sand properties. The empirical functions that represent the common shape of individual curves for interpreted pore pressure data are also suggested. The proposed procedure has been adapted for presentation of other cyclic soil tests, and examples of interpretation of cyclic stress-controlled as well as cyclic drained tests are included.     

自动提取土地利用变化信息后处理方法的研究

 研究目的是对计算机自动提取的土地利用变化信息进行后处理，以提高信息提取精度； 研究方法是模板判断法，该方法有效 地改善了单像元判断的效果，提高了变化信息的提取精度，可以应用于土地利用动态遥感监测。     

基于MATLAB的遥感图像变化检测

主要讨论了遥感图像变化检测的图像几何配准和阈值选取理论,利用MATLAB强大的数值计算功能实现了遥感图像变化检测.在拓展数学符号计算软件包MATLAB应用领域的同时,探索了一种遥感图像处理软件的快速开发方式.     

Profile response of a lacustrine multiple barred nearshore to a sequence of storm events

Profile change in a lacustrine multiple-barred nearshore was investigated over the ice-free season of 2001/2002 at Burley Beach on the southeastern shore of Lake Huron in order to identify the feedback mechanisms between the pre-existing morphology and the wave forcing and the consequence of those feedbacks to the behaviour of the nearshore environment. The characteristics of the offshore wave field were monitored using a Falmouth Scientific combined 3D-ACM wave recorder and pressure transducer. Supplemental wave data were downloaded from a 3-m discus buoy operated by the National Data Buoy Center, 75 km to the NW of the study site. The three nearshore bars were in a quasi-equilibrium state through a large part of the ice-free season, with dramatic changes occurring during relatively moderate storm events that followed much larger storms in late October. A comparison of the incident wave field with changes in the nearshore profile through canonical correlation analysis indicates that the morphology responds to the distribution of the significant, root-mean-square (rms) and average wave heights between surveys. The threshold between bar decay and onshore bar migration and growth is associated with the onset of breaking of the rms wave at the bar crest (H_rms h_cr⁻¹ ≈0.3–0.4). The threshold between onshore and offshore migration is associated with the onset of breaking of the average wave at the bar crest (H_avg h_cr⁻¹ ≈0.3–0.4), coincident with complete dissipation of the significant wave over the lakeward slope of the bar (H_s h_cr⁻¹ >0.6). Inshore wave data collected during an instrumented study at the same site revealed that the middle and inner bars remained at the threshold of onshore and offshore migration over a wide range of offshore significant wave heights (0.8 to 2.4 m) prior to the October storms. This self-organised equilibrium is a result of changes to the incident wave distribution through breaking on the outer bar. It is concluded that the prediction of bar response requires an understanding of the feedback between the bar and the local wave distribution in addition to an understanding of the feedback associated with the profile as a whole.     

Thresholds in small rivers? Hypotheses developed from fluvial morphological research in western Germany

The objective of this study was the formulation of fluvial morphological regularities for small rivers with a wide range of morphological and geological characteristics in North-Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) based on a statistical research methodology. Such empirical quantitative information on reference conditions is required for the restoration of small rivers in the former highly industrialised Ruhr-Area. Following the approach of some classic empirical works in fluvial morphology of the last century, several natural reference rivers in the entire research area have been observed in order to provide a statistical correlation between independent and dependent morphological variables. Regressions between valley-floor slope, bankfull discharge and stream power on the one hand and several variables describing the longitudinal profile and river planform on the other hand have shown some significant results. The regularities found are a quantitative contribution to the establishment of reference conditions as well as a useful tool for the restoration of small rivers, if the specific properties and values of the underlying random sampling are taken into account. In addition, the relation between stream power and sinuosity shows the likely existence of a threshold: Exceeding a stream power of 100 W/m, the sinuosity decreases after an increase for lower stream power values. Comparable thresholds were found for the relation between stream power and pool depth as well as stream power and step steepness. The thresholds could be explained by a change in the type of energy dissipation, due to different physio-geographical settings in highland rivers within forested v-shaped valleys. Here, large-woody debris seems to increase the channel roughness and possibly replaces the significance of coarse-grained bed material, pool depth and step steepness as contributors to energy dissipation.     

基于TM的城市温度异常区分析

利用实时探空数据和单窗算法对2004年7月6日北京市TM图像进行地表温度反演，根据反演结果，采用阈值法将北京城区地表温度空间分布分为植被正常温度区、水体正常温度区、水体高温区、裸地正常温度区、建筑物低温区、建筑物正常温度区、建筑物高温区、植被建筑物混合高温区和植被建筑物混合正常温度区等9种模式。在此基础上，对水体高温区、植被建筑物混合高温区、建筑物低温区和建筑物高温区等4种温度异常区进行了实地抽样调查，详细分析了这些温度异常区形成的原因。