Design of Mooring System for Oil Storage Vessels

The floating oil storage system has been proposed as a new facility for Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in China. Mooring is one of the key technologies to ensure the safety, reliability, and performance of the oil storage system. This paper describes the concept, analysis, design and reliability of the mooring system. For mooring system design of these oil vessels, analysis is essential of the behavior of the vessel in connection with mooring facilities of nonlinear resilience. A nonlinear mathematical model for analyzing a moored vessel is established and solved. Some results of numerical simulations are presented. Assessment of the safety regarding the mooring system in terms of failure probability is carried out. Another simulation model for calculating the failure probability of the mooring system is proposed. The design parameters that have an influence on the characteristics of the failure probability have been identified. The simulation results show that the mooring system has an annual reliab     

Casualties in dry bulk shipping (1963–1996)

In recent years, bulk carriers have been identified with high risks of catastrophic structural failure and foundering, and with heavy loss of human life. This study, based upon Lloyd's of London casualty records, identified four risk factors that had significant, independent effect upon the likelihood of a bulk carrier foundering. The risk of foundering increased with the age of the ship, and was related to the ship's flag of registration. Most importantly, however, increased risks were found for heavy cargoes of iron ore and scrap steel or iron, and for trading routes to the Far East and from Europe to North America. Additional safety measures, in particular regarding ship design and high-risk trades, may well be necessary to reduce the high casualty rates.     

思林水电站通航建筑物高边坡稳定分析和评价

应用ANSYS结构分析软件,模拟了思林水电站通航建筑物高边坡的地形、地质条件以及开挖的过程,建立边坡开挖的有限元计算分析模型,分析边坡在自然状态、分级开挖以及锚杆支护加固等工况下的应力、变形及其整体稳定性.定义单元的局部安全系数,得到了边坡开挖加固后稳定安全系数的分布.根据计算成果,指出现设计加固措施可以保证边坡稳定,无需增加其他工程措施.     

北京市基础测绘技术规程的探讨

分析了规程与现行相关法律、法规和标准的关系,探讨了北京市基础测绘技术规程的内容,介绍了其创新点和应用情况。通过分析介绍,该地方标准统一了北京市基础测绘的技术标准,规范了基础测绘成果,有利于实现测绘信息资源的共享和有效利用。     

江西省永平铜矿西部排土场极限堆载高度确定

国内外对排土场极限堆载高度的理论计算缺乏研究,目前尚无成熟的统一理论计算方法。文章结合永平铜矿西部排土场的工程实例,在进行边坡工程地质条件勘察与排土场岩土物理力学性质试验研究的基础上,采用数值计算方法对排土场进行了分层堆载数值模拟计算。通过对计算结果的分析,得到位移、塑性区与安全系数随堆载高度的变化规律,并确定了该排土场的极限堆载高度。     

Carbonyl products of the gas phase reaction of ozone with 1,1-disubstituted alkenes

Carbonyl products have been identified and their formation yields measured in experiments involving the gas phase reaction of ozone with 1,1-disubstituted alkenes at ambient T and p=1 atm. of air. Sufficient cyclohexane was added to scavenge the hydroxyl radical in order to minimize OH-alkene and OH-carbonyl reactions. Formation yields (carbonyl formed/ozone reacted) of primary carbonyls were close to the value of 1.0 that is consistent with the mechanism: O₃+R₁R₂C=CH₂ (HCHO+R₁R₂COO)+(1–)(R₁COR₂+H₂COO) where formaldehyde and the ketone R₁ COR₂ are the primary carbonyls and R₁R₂COO and H₂COO are the corresponding biradicals. Measured values of were 0.58–0.82 and indicate modest preferential formation of formaldehyde and the disubstituted biradical as compared to the ketone and the biradical H₂COO. Carbonyls other than the primary carbonyls were identified. Their formation is discussed in terms of subsequent reactions of the disubstituted biradicals R₁R₂COO. Similarities and differences between disubstituted and monosubstituted biradicals are outlined.     

Influence of submerged aquatic vegetation on size class distribution of perch (Perca fluviatilis) and roach (Rutilus rutilus) in the littoral zone of Lake Geneva (Switzerland)

The abundance of different size classes of perch and roach in the littoral zone of Lake Geneva was compared between submerged aquatic vegetation and unvegetated zones. Samples were taken with gillnets during four periods between June and October 1993. During the vegetation period (June to September), perch 9 cm and roach 10 cm were more abundant in vegetation whereas roach > 20 cm were more abundant in open water. Perch larger than 18 cm and medium roach were equally distributed in both habitats whatever the period, whereas medium perch distribution fluctuated according to the period. In October, after the decline of the vegetation, no more differences in fish distribution were observed except for small roach, which were always more abundant in the vegetated sites.     

River bank erosion control by soil nailing

A study has been done for analysing soil nailed cuts with circular type wedge failure by friction circle method. Various parameters such as nail length, nail diameter, nail inclination, wall inclination and angle of internal friction of soil have been considered to determine the factor of safety of nailed open cuts. The study shows that for cohesionless soil nailed cut, factor of safety increase with increase of parameters like angle of internal friction of soil, length of nail (L) versus height of cut (H) ratio, cohesion of soil and nail inclination (upto 15°) with horizontal. The study revealed that nails grouted with cement perform better than driven nails. A case study further confirms the analytical findings. Received 7 October     

Intercomparison of IRS-P4-MSMR derived geophysical products with DMSP-SSM/I and TRMM-TMI finished products

In this paper, MSMR geophysical products like Integrated Water Vapour (IWV), Ocean Surface Wind Speed (OWS) and Cloud Liquid Water (CLW) in different grids of 50, 75 and 150 kms are compared with similar products available from other satellites like DMSP-SSM/I and TRMMTMI. MSMR derived IWV, OWS and CLW compare well with SSM/I and TMI finished products. Comparison of MSMR derived CLW with that derived from TMI and SSM/I is relatively in less agreement. This is possibly due to the use of 37 GHz in SSM/I and TMI that is highly sensitive to CLW, while 37 GHz channels are not available on MSMR. Monthly comparison of MSMR geophysical products with those from TMI is all carried out for climatological purpose. The monthly comparisons were much better compared to instantaneous comparisons. In this paper, details of the data analysis and comparison results are presented. The usefulness of the MSMR vis-à-vis other sensors is also discussed.     

Alpine medicinal plant trade and Himalayan mountain livelihood strategies

Commercial alpine medicinal plants are collected from the wild by local rural households throughout the Himalaya and sold in order to increase household incomes. Recent studies indicate that this annual trade amounts to thousands of tonnes of roots, rhizomes, tubers, leaves, etc., worth millions of US dollars. The main market is in India. Based on a national survey, including the most commonly traded species, and a village study this paper investigates the importance of the alpine medicinal plant trade at national and local levels in Nepal. The national survey included standardized open-ended interviews with 232 harvesters, 64 local traders, 66 central wholesalers, 47 regional wholesalers, and 16 production companies. The village survey is based on the daily records of household activities in 15 households in a one-year period. The annual Nepalese alpine and sub-alpine medicinal plant trade is conservatively estimated to vary from 480 to 2500 t with a total harvester value of US$0.8–3.3 million; the average harvester value is estimated at US$66.0 ± 99.0. The trade in 1997/98 amounted to 1600 t with a harvester value of US$2.3 million and an export value equivalent to 2.5% of total export from Nepal. Medicinal plant harvesting was found to constitute an integrated part of local livelihood strategies, contributing from 3 to 44% (average of 12%) of the annual household income. Importance at household level depended on land and animal holdings, and the availability of adult male labour. The validity and reliability of methods and analyses is evaluated, and issues of conservation and management of alpine medicinal plant species under the community forestry scheme are discussed.