Temporality of disasters: The politics of women's livelihoods ‘after’ the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka

The devastation caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka is represented as a ‘natural disaster’. Yet, the tsunami did not occur in a sociopolitical and historical vacuum. How people responded to the tsunami, the challenges of and attitudes to relocation and post‐tsunami livelihoods, were/are shaped by uneven development, social exclusion and ethnonationalist war. All these responses are embedded in structures of gender, caste, class, and ethnicity. The tsunami, thus, brought to the forefront preexisting inequalities, showing up complexities in the temporality of disasters. Drawn from fieldwork in two coastal areas in the Southern and Eastern provinces, this paper shows how gendered structures within the local political economy influenced the ways that institutional actors as well as the displaced communities and women initially devised livelihood strategies. These reactions show how place matters as much as preexisting gendered political economy conditions and reveal the complex ways in which women continue to mediate and negotiate everyday responses in the aftermath of a ‘natural’ disaster.     

Predicting the effect of biofouling on ship resistance using CFD

This paper proposes a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based unsteady RANS model which enables the prediction of the effect of marine coatings and biofouling on ship resistance and presents CFD simulations of the roughness effects on the resistance and effective power of the full-scale 3D KRISO Container Ship (KCS) hull.Initially, a roughness function model representing a typical coating and different fouling conditions was developed by using the roughness functions given in the literature. This model then was employed in the wall-function of the CFD software and the effects of a typical as applied coating and different fouling conditions on the frictional resistance of flat plates representing the KCS were predicted for a design speed of 24 knots and a slow steaming speed of 19 knots using the proposed CFD model. The roughness effects of such conditions on the resistance components and effective power of the full-scale 3D KCS model were then predicted at the same speeds. The resulting frictional resistance values of the present study were then compared with each other and with results obtained using the similarity law analysis. The increase in the effective power of the full-scale KCS hull was predicted to be 18.1% for a deteriorated coating or light slime whereas that due to heavy slime was predicted to be 38% at a ship speed of 24 knots. In addition, it was observed that the wave resistance and wave systems are significantly affected by the hull roughness and hence viscosity.     

Quasi-static analysis of strike fault growth in layered media

We study the effects of structural inhomogeneity on the quasi-static growth of strike-slip faults. A layered medium is considered, made up of an upper layer bounded by a free surface and welded to a lower half-space with different elastic property. Mode III crack is employed as a mathematical model of strike-slip fault, which is nucleated in the lower half-space and then propagates towards the interface. We adopt FEM-β, newly proposed analysis method for failure, to simulate the quasi-statistic crack growth governed by the stress distribution in layered media. Our results show that along planar traces across interfaces a compliant upper layer has significant effects on promoting/suppressing crack growth before/after its extension into the layer and vice versa for a rigid one. This proposes a possibility that surface breaks due to strike-slip faulting could be arrested by deposit layers at the topmost part of the Earth's crust.     

Response of saturated and nearly saturated porous media: Different formulations and their applicability

The response of saturated porous medium is of significant interest in many fields ranging from geomechanics to biomechanics. Biot was the first to formulate the basic equations governing the process of coupled flow and deformation in porous media. Depending on the nature of loading vis‐à‐vis the characteristics of the media, different formulations (fully dynamic, partly dynamic, quasi‐static) are possible. In this study, analytical solutions are developed for the response of saturated and nearly saturated porous media under plane strain condition. The solutions for different formulations are developed in terms of non‐dimensional parameters. The response is studied for various conditions and the regions of validity for various formulations are identified in a parametric space. An assessment of the needed formulation for few important problems is also presented. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

地壳内的岩浆动力学过程及其资源与环境效应SCIEI北大核心CSCD

岩浆是将地球内部物质传送到表层系统的主要载体,并造成显著的资源聚集和环境效应。岩浆动力学是研究岩浆的迁移、储存、演化、就位以及喷发过程,侧重物理机制。这些岩浆过程主要发生在岩浆通道系统中,包括岩浆储库和岩浆管道。本文对目前国际岩浆动力学领域一些热点和前沿进行了介绍,这包括从岩浆房到岩浆储库概念的转变、岩浆储库的生长和动力学演化过程、岩浆过程的时间尺度以及岩浆中晶体的生长。然后阐述了岩浆中挥发分的种类和溶解度、获取天然岩浆挥发分含量的方法、一些典型镁铁质岩浆中的挥发分含量、岩浆去气的化学和物理机制,并简要梳理了热液金属矿床的形成过程和岩浆挥发分进入地表圈层系统引发的环境气候效应。最后列举了一些岩浆动力学有关的重要科学问题并建议了进一步的研究方向。     

湿斜压大气中暴雨中尺度系统发展的一种可能机制

根据暴雨中尺度系统发生时的大气运动特征,在绝热、无摩擦条件下,从湿斜压原始方程出发,考虑大气运动的涡度及散度演化不仅受动力场的制约,而且还受到热力场的约束,采用不同于传统研究涡度及散度方程的分析方法,导出了新形式的涡度及散度方程。在此基础上,分析了湿斜压大气中对流层中低层气流旋转与辐合持续增长的动力特征,初步揭示了湿斜压大气中暴雨中尺度系统发展的动力机制。     

臭氧和平流层动力学的相互作用

讨论了给定的南极春季臭氧洞(取自1979—1985年臭氧减少的观测结果)对二维平流层—对流层模式中温度和环流的影响。11月份,南极上空约17km处,温度最多可降低6℃。这种温度变化引起的平均经向环流对臭氧洞起填塞作用,不过,这种影响很小,每年仅产生14DU的变化。观测事实表明,近年来10月份,南半球波活动减弱。为此,我们作了南半球波作用全年都减少一半,并考虑了臭氧洞的数值试验。结果表明,臭氧柱在11月份76°S减少了44DU,在赤道却增加了12DU。     

青藏高原大陆动力学研究若干进展

近10年来,"大陆构造与动力学实验室"在青藏高原大陆动力学研究,尤其在特提斯演化和青藏高原生长方面取得若干进展,包括(1)"青藏高原——造山的高原"理念的提出;(2)青藏高原特提斯体制和构造格架的再造;(3)新特提斯蛇绿岩中原位金刚石和深地幔矿物群的重大发现;(4)新特提斯洋盆俯冲新机制的揭示;(5)印度/亚洲碰撞的早期岩浆和喜马拉雅折返中的作用;(6)喜马拉雅三维碰撞造山机制和折返全过程的初步建立;(7)青藏高原东南缘物质逃逸的新机制——"弯曲与地壳解耦"的提出;(8)青藏高原俯冲型、碰撞型及陆内型片麻岩穹窿;(9)青藏高原东缘汶川强震的构造背景和强震机制;(10)青藏高原碰撞造山成矿模式;(11)印度/亚洲碰撞过程的数值模拟。综述和集成上述成果是为了与同行们交流磋商,进一步共同发展青藏高原大陆动力学理论,向国际地学前沿的冲刺。     

Long term variations in the mesospheric mean flow observed at Grahamstown (South Africa) and Adelaide (Australia)

The seasonal and interannual behaviour of monthly mean winds at a height of 90 km recorded at Grahamstown (33.3°S, 26.5°E) and Adelaide (34.5°S, 138.5°E) between 1987 and 1994 are compared. The zonal wind is found to be consistently stronger at Grahamstown and is always eastward, whereas at Adelaide it sometimes reverses. Maxima tend to occur near the solstices, the primary maximum during summer at Grahamstown, in agreement with satellite results, and during winter at Adelaide. The meridional wind also tends to be stronger at Grahamstown, but at both stations is predominantly northward with a maximum in summer and generally not as strong as the zonal component. This seasonal behaviour is reasonably well understood in terms of the interaction of the mean flow with gravity waves propagating up from below, with coriolis forces also playing an important role in the case of the meridional wind. Satellite observations do not generally support the idea that longitudinal differences between the stations could be attributed to the presence of a tropospheric/stratospheric stationary wave. It is suggested that these differences are more probably associated with local effects. Interannual zonal wind patterns at the two sites are similar over the summer months but are less well correlated during the rest of the year. The underlying causes of this variability are not well understood but are most probably global in nature, at least during the summer.