Analysis of simple shear tests with cell pressure confinement

The high cost of offshore infrastructure provides continuous encouragement for optimisation of design practices. Development of a more rational method to interpret results from simple shear tests with cell pressure confinement can reduce costs and improve reliability of offshore infrastructure. This paper addresses a commonly overlooked issue affecting design parameter selection: specimen shape varies from right cylinder to oblique cylinder after loading along a single shearing direction. Thus, horizontal stresses are not always equal to the cell pressure and their magnitude varies throughout the specimen’s lateral surface. An analysis is proposed that accounts for changing specimen geometry and lateral surface area during shearing and for the actual effect of cell pressure during testing. The analysis also describes how the intermediate principal stress can be assessed. Test results for medium dense silica sand are interpreted following de Josselin de Jong’s alternative shearing mechanism hypothesis. Conventional interpretation methods yield conservative design parameters for this soil. Failure states develop when the intermediate principal effective stress is halfway between major and minor principal effective stresses. Typical results for the soil tested show equipment performance meets standard direct simple shear requirements for shear strain rate, vertical stress and specimen height control.     

新疆县域农林牧渔业空间差异分析——基于ESDA与GIS方法

应用ESDA并结合标准差指数(S)、变异系数(V)等方法,从空间相关的视角分析新疆各县市农林牧渔业人均产值的空间差异。结果显示:以农林牧渔业人均产值来计算的新疆县域间的农林牧渔业人均产值呈现北疆高于东疆、南疆的空间差异。2003-2012年间:新疆县域农林牧渔业人均产值的空间自相关测度Moran's I呈曲线性增减态势,表明农林牧渔业人均产值的空间集聚性呈曲线性波动,但农林牧渔业人均产值的年增长率逐年上升。从局部自相关分析来看,区域间呈现两个极端化较为明显,说明新疆农林牧渔业人均产值在空间分布上具有不均衡性。     

Assessment of evaporation and water fluxes in a column of dry saline soil subject to different water table levels

Dry saline soils are common in the arid and hyper‐arid basins located in the Chilean Altiplano, where evaporation from shallow groundwater is typically the major component of the water balance. Thus, a good understanding of evaporation processes is necessary for improving water resource planning and management in these regions. In this study, we conducted laboratory experiments with a natural saline soil column to estimate evaporation rates and assess the liquid and water vapor fluxes under different water table levels. Water content, electrical conductivity and temperature at different depths were utilized to assess the liquid and water vapor fluxes in the soil column. We observed movement of water that dissolves salts from the soil and transports them to areas in the column where they accumulate. Isothermal liquid flux was predominant, while thermal and isothermal liquid and thermal water vapor fluxes were negligible, except for deep water table levels where isothermal and thermal water vapor fluxes had similar magnitude but opposite directions. Differences observed in total fluxes for all water table levels were due to different upward and downward fluxes, which depend on changes in water content and temperature within the soil profile. Both the vapor flux magnitude and direction were found to be very sensitive to the choice of empirical parameters used in flux quantification, such as tortuosity and the enhancement factor for local temperature gradients in the air phase within the column. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phosphatic microspherules and their geobiological implications from the Frasnian-Famennian transition at the Yangdi section,Guilin, South China

Abundant perfectly-preserved phosphatic microspherules have been discovered across the Frasnian-Famennian(F-F)transition from the Yangdi section in Guilin,Guangxi,South China.They are mostly spherical or elliptical in shape and about 150μm in diameter with smooth exterior surfaces.Each microspherule consistently possesses a small dimple on the surface.The internal texture of microspherules consists of concentric light-colored apatite and dark-colored organic matter bands alternating around a central core.Conodonts have also been found preserved together with phosphatic microspherules in the same horizon,and the abundance of the former is obviously higher than that of the latter.Laser Raman spectral studies show close similarities in spectral patterns between the outer shells of phosphatic microspherules and the blade of the conodont genus Palmatolepis sp.,as well as between the microspherule nucleus and the platform of the same conodont genus.Furthermore,the statistical results and geochemical data demonstrate that the elevated abundance of phosphatic microspherules roughly coincides with the blooms of bacteria and algae,but is later than the sharp increase of oceanic nutrients.The phosphatic microspherules are interpreted here to be the‘otoliths’secreted by conodont animals based on the compositional similarities between phosphatic microspherules and conodonts and their interrelated abundances.In addition,an analogous study reveals morphological and textural similarities between fish otoliths and phosphatic microspherules.The formation of phosphatic microspherules is probably related to seawater eutrophication.We speculate that the explosive growth of bacteria and algae is probably caused by the enrichment of nutrients that is most likely associated with the increase of terrestrial inputs,submarine hydrothermal activities or the upwelling anoxic bottom waters in the late Devonian,which would stimulate the conodont animals to secrete phosphatic microspherules—the‘otoliths’of conodont animals.This study reveals the coupling relationship between organisms and environments from the perspective of phosphatic microspherules and provides new evidence for the cause of faunal crisis during the Late Devonian F-F transition.     

A pleistocene mummified ostracod from the Wairarapa district

A mummified specimen of Scottia insularis Chapman is recorded from beds of Upper Nukumaruan age (Pleistocene) at Gladstone in the Wairarapa Valley. This is the first record of a mummified species from New Zealand.     

概率性分析在黄土场地动力沉降评价中的应用

天然黄土动残余应变研究主要依赖室内动三轴试验,如何将有限室内试验数据合理地应用于场地动力沉降的定量评价,是岩土地震工程领域中研究涉足尚少的重要科学问题。应用概率统计与蒙特卡洛模拟等非确定性分析方法,借助综合考虑固结应力、结构强度、空间体积特性和地震动荷载等动残余应变关键影响参量的估算模型,提出有效弱化土体物性参量不确定性（离散性与随机性）的场地动力沉降概率性评价的思路与方法。应用结果显示,利用该方法得出的场地动力沉降的概率分布特征,能够反映天然黄土动残余应变的基本认知特点,对明晰地震作用下天然黄土场地精细动力沉降特性以及据此采用适当合理的地基处理方法,具有理论意义与实用价值。     

Rock warming and drying under simulated intertidal conditions,part II: weathering and biological influences on evaporative cooling and near‐surface micro‐climatic conditions as an example of biogeomorphic ecosystem engineering

The way in which rocks and engineering materials heat‐up and dry‐out in the intertidal zone is of relevance to both weathering and ecology. These behaviours can be measured in the laboratory under controlled conditions designed to replicate those occurring in the field. Previous studies have demonstrated differences in thermal behaviours between rock types and through time as a result of soiling in terrestrial environments, but the influence of weathering and colonization on rock behaviours in the intertidal zone has not been previously assessed. We measured the warming and drying of blocks of rock (limestone and granite) and marine concrete during ‘low‐tide’ events simulated in the laboratory, before and after a period of exposure (eight months) on rock platforms in Cornwall, UK. As well as differences between the material types, temperatures of control (unexposed) and field‐exposed blocks differed in the order of 1 to 2 °C. Drying behaviours were also different after field exposure. Differences during the first few hours of exposure to air and heat were attributed to discolouration and albedo effects. Over longer periods of time, changes in the availability of near‐surface pore water as a result of micro‐scale bioerosion of limestone and the development of bio‐chemical crusts on marine concrete [observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM)] are suggested as mechanisms enhancing and reducing, respectively, the efficiency of evaporative cooling. The retention of moisture by epilithic biofilms may also influence thermal and drying behaviours of granite. These observations represent one of the first examples of cross‐scalar biogeomorphic linkages in the intertidal zone. The significance of the results for the subsequent efficiency of weathering, and near‐surface micro‐climatic conditions experienced by colonizing organisms is discussed. The involvement of microorganisms in the creation of more (or less) ecologically stressful conditions through the alteration of substratum geomorphic properties and behaviours is suggested as an example of ‘biogeomorphic ecosystem engineering’. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changes in vertical distribution and aggregative behaviour in response to population density for larval sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) and sea stars (Asterias rubens)

We examined the effects of the presence of larval conspecifics on larval vertical distribution of four‐arm and six‐arm plutei of Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis and bipinnaria of Asterias rubens, in laboratory experiments, by manipulating population density. Larvae were introduced to experimental columns (10 × 10 × 30 cm) at one of two or three population densities (S. droebachiensis: 0.1 and 10 larvae·ml^?1; A. rubens: 0.1, 1 and 10 larvae·ml^?1). Subsequent changes in vertical distribution were determined from images of the larvae in the columns illuminated by a 532‐nm laser and captured by a high‐resolution camera. Larvae of both species were found higher in the water column in the high than in the low and intermediate population densities. The relationship between vertical swimming velocity and nearest neighbour distance (NND) was measured for four‐arm plutei of S. droebachiensis, and used to determine a range in distances among individuals that may affect potential interactions. The variation in swimming velocity decreased with increasing proximity below a threshold distance among individuals of 10 mm, which was greater than the estimated distance in the high population density. We suggest that the increased larval aggregation near the water surface under high population density is the result of a behavioural response to conspecifics.     

城市热岛效应下浅层土中混凝土的酸腐蚀试验研究

针对城市热岛效应引起城区浅层土地温场升高这一观测结果,采用室内快速模拟试验方法,对城区酸性土壤腐蚀混凝土材料的温度效应开展了试验研究。试验研究了在温度为5℃、20℃和40℃条件下,混凝土试样在酸浓度分别为0%、5%和10%的沙土介质中放置30d、90d后的抗压强度变化规律,并对混凝土试样在腐蚀过程中的腐蚀系数变化规律和微观机理进行了分析;最后,对南京城区热岛效应环境下浅层土中混凝土材料酸腐蚀的强度变化规律进行了分析。试验结果表明,在同一腐蚀浓度下,混凝土试样抗压强度的下降速度随着温度的升高而不断加快,其腐蚀系数也随着温度的升高而不断增大;腐蚀介质的浓度越大,环境温度对混凝土腐蚀系数的影响就越明显;在温度为40℃、硫酸浓度为10%的沙土中放置30 d后,混凝土的腐蚀系数K达到45.21%,约是在5℃条件下腐蚀系数的2倍,相当于环境温度每上升1℃,混凝土腐蚀系数平均增加0.64%。该研究成果对于减轻城市热岛效应对岩土工程的影响具有重要意义。