Effect of irregular structural configuration on floor acceleration demand in hill‐side buildings

A suite of reinforced‐concrete frame buildings located on hill sides, with 2 different structural configurations, viz step‐back and split‐foundation, are analyzed to study their floor response. Both step‐back and split‐foundation structural configurations lead to torsional effects in the direction across the slope due to the presence of shorter columns on the uphill side. Peak floor acceleration and floor response spectra are obtained at each storey's center of rigidity and at both its stiff and flexible edges. As reported in previous studies as well, it is observed that the floor response spectra are better correlated with the ground response spectrum. Therefore, the floor spectral amplification functions are obtained as the ratio of spectral ordinates at different floor levels to the one at the ground level. Peaks are observed in the spectral amplification functions corresponding to the first 2 modes in the upper portion of the hill‐side buildings, whereas a single peak corresponding to a specific kth mode of vibration is observed on the floors below the uppermost foundation level. Based on the numerical study for the step‐back and split‐foundation hill‐side buildings, simple floor spectral amplification functions are proposed and validated. The proposed spectral amplification functions take into account both the buildings' plan and elevation irregularities and can be used for seismic design of acceleration‐sensitive nonstructural components, given that the supporting structure's dynamic characteristics, torsional rotation, ground‐motion response spectrum, and location of the nonstructural components within the supporting structure are known, because current code models are actually not applicable to hill‐side buildings.     

一种嵌入式空间数据引擎的设计与实现

空间数据引擎是实现高效空间数据访问和管理的关键技术之一。本文提出一种基于内存映射文件和改进堆组织表方式的嵌入式空间数据引擎设计与实现方法,分析了该数据引擎的组成部分和关键算法,并在其基础上讨论了日志及事务的实现方法。通过对实际数据的实验对比,其结果表明:基于本文方法开发的系统和目前主流嵌入式数据库相比,具有数据访问速度快,占用内存少的特点,适合于空间数据的编辑环境。     

Improvement of user’s accuracy through classification of principal component images and stacked temporal images

The classification accuracy of the various categories on the classified remotely sensed images are usually evaluated by two different measures of accuracy, namely, producer’s accuracy (PA) and user’s accuracy (UA). The PA of a category indicates to what extent the reference pixels of the category are correctly classified, whereas the UA of a category represents to what extent the other categories are less misclassified into the category in question. Therefore, the UA of the various categories determines the reliability of their interpretation on the classified image and is more important to the analyst than the PA. The present investigation has been performed in order to determine if there occurs improvement in the UA of the various categories on the classified image of the principal components of the original bands and on the classified image of the stacked image of two different years. We performed the analyses using the IRS LISS III images of two different years, i.e., 1996 and 2009, that represent the different magnitude of urbanization and the stacked image of these two years pertaining to Ranchi area, Jharkhand, India, with a view to assessing the impacts of urbanization on the UA of the different categories. The results of the investigation demonstrated that there occurs significant improvement in the UA of the impervious categories in the classified image of the stacked image, which is attributable to the aggregation of the spectral information from twice the number of bands from two different years. On the other hand, the classified image of the principal components did not show any improvement in the UA as compared to the original images.     

Investigating the vibration properties of integrated ceiling systems considering interactions with surrounding equipment

Studies on recent earthquakes highlighted that buildings with minimal structural damage still suffer from extensive damage and failure of nonstructural components. The dropping and damage of suspended ceiling systems, which typically consist of acceleration-sensitive nonstructural elements, resulted in lengthy functional disruptions and extended recovery time. This article experimentally and analytically examined the vibration properties of an integrated ceiling system considering the interactions with surrounding electrical equipment. The theoretical stiffness and corresponding frequency of electrical equipment were initially derived and then verified by subsequent vibration tests and numerical analyses. The seismic performance of the air conditioner (AC) was evaluated with different installment configurations based on design spectra and floor response spectra. Vibration tests of the suspended integrated ceiling system considering the interactions with surrounding equipment showed that the inclusion of peripheral constraints increased the first horizontal vibration frequency of the ceiling system by a factor of approximately 6. The natural frequencies of all components in the integrated ceiling system were almost identical, which was attributed to the coupled behavior between the ceiling panels and surrounding equipment, emphasizing the effect of interactions between adjacent components during dynamic analysis. Based on the above experimental investigation, an associated numerical model of the integrated ceiling system was created. Finally, corresponding parametric studies that included the interactions with surrounding equipment, reinforcing braces of ACs and strengthening members at the rise-up location between two elevations were performed.     

Using multivariate statistical analysis of groundwater major cation and trace element concentrations to evaluate groundwater flow in a regional aquifer

Groundwater samples were collected from 11 springs in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in southern Nevada and seven springs from Death Valley National Park in eastern California. Concentrations of the major cations (Ca, Mg, Na and K) and 45 trace elements were determined in these groundwater samples. The resultant data were subjected to evaluation via the multivariate statistical technique principal components analysis (PCA), to investigate the chemical relationships between the Ash Meadows and Death Valley spring waters, to evaluate whether the results of the PCA support those of previous hydrogeological and isotopic studies and to determine if PCA can be used to help delineate potential groundwater flow patterns based on the chemical compositions of groundwaters. The results of the PCA indicated that groundwaters from the regional Paleozoic carbonate aquifers (all of the Ash Meadows springs and four springs from the Furnace Creek region of Death Valley) exhibited strong statistical associations, whereas other Death Valley groundwaters were chemically different. The results of the PCA support earlier studies, where potentiometric head levels, δ¹⁸O and δD, geological relationships and rare earth element data were used to evaluate groundwater flow, which suggest groundwater flows from Ash Meadows to the Furnace Creek springs in Death Valley. The PCA suggests that Furnace Creek groundwaters are moderately concentrated Ash Meadows groundwater, reflecting longer aquifer residence times for the Furnace Creek groundwaters. Moreover, PCA indicates that groundwater may flow from springs in the region surrounding Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park, to a spring discharging on the valley floor. The study indicates that PCA may provide rapid and relatively cost‐effective methods to assess possible groundwater flow regimes in systems that have not been previously investigated. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lateral dynamic response of a partially embedded pile subjected to combined loads in saturated soil

In this article, an analytical solution is proposed to investigate the lateral dynamic response of a pile which is partially embedded in saturated soil layer and subjected to combined lateral and vertical loads. The saturated soil is described by Biot’s poroelastic theory and the resistance of soil is derived by potential function method. The governing equation of the pile is solved by coupling soil resistance and continuity conditions between the pile and the soil. The dynamic impedances of the pile are then obtained through transfer matrix method. To verify the validity of the proposed procedure, the present solution is compared with available solution for an idealized case. Finally, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effects of various parameters on the stiffness and damping properties of the pile-soil system. It is found that permeability of the soil and vertical load has significant effects on the dynamic response of the pile.     

Intensity measures for probabilistic assessment of non‐structural components acceleration demand

A fundamental issue in the framework of seismic probabilistic risk analysis is the choice of ground motion intensity measures (IMs). Based on the floor response spectrum method, the present contribution focuses on the ability of IMs to predict non‐structural components (NSCs) horizontal acceleration demand. A large panel of IMs is examined and a new IM, namely equipment relative average spectral acceleration (E‐ASA_R), is proposed for the purpose of NSCs acceleration demand prediction. The IMs efficiency and sufficiency comparisons are based on (i) the use of a large dataset of recorded earthquake ground motions; (ii) numerical analyses performed on three‐dimensional numerical models, representing actual structural wall and frame buildings; and (iii) systematic statistical analysis of the results. From the comparative study, the herein introduced E‐ASA_R shows high efficiency with respect to the estimation of maximum floor response spectra ordinates. Such efficiency is particularly remarkable in the case of structural wall buildings. Besides, the sufficiency and the simple formulation allowing the use of existing ground motion prediction models make the E‐ASA_R a promising IMs for seismic probabilistic risk assessment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

磁化率对大地电磁响应的影响研究

本文推导了物质的磁化率大于自由空间的情况下的二维大地电磁(MT)正演计算公式. 利用有限差分法实现了其正演计算,获得了电磁场的分布. 详细地讨论了磁化率对MT响应的影响,证实了磁化率主要影响磁场信号的同相分量,而对磁场信号的异相分量和电场信号的影响比较弱. 当磁化率κ≥001时,在某些低频点的视电阻率值可以增加5Ωｍ左右,并且随着磁化率增加,这种增加的幅度显著增大;而对阻抗相位的影响则非常小. 新的认识为高磁化率物质存在的地区观测到的MT数据解释提供一种新的研究思路.     

全风化花岗岩化学及矿物成份在全土和粘粒中的不同表征

对全风化花岗岩化学和矿物成份的测试常用全土和粘粒部分(粒径<2μm)分别进行。业已发现两者由于物质组成和结构特征的差异,对土工程地质性质所起作用不同。本文给出了6个全风化花岗岩样品的全土和粘粒部分筛分法和移液管法测定粒度成份,用X荧光光谱仪做全量化学分析,及XRD矿物学分析的结果。对比这两部分数据发现,属于含砾土的这些样品化学成份的变化同矿物一致,尤其是同粘土矿物成份含量变化很一致。同全岩相比,粘粒化学成份中的SiO₂减少了近50%,K₂O含量也降低,而Al₂O₃、Fe₂O₃和H₂O⁺都明显升高。粘粒中氧化物相对含量升高者居多;全岩矿物成份以石英、粘土矿物和长石为主,粘粒中埃洛石和高岭石占大多数,其次为伊利石;粒度成份、化学成份和矿物含量相关性比较明显的是:石英和角砾正相关,和砂粒负相关,长石和砂粒正相关,粘土矿物含量和Al₂O₃、烧失量(LOI)和埃洛石含量正相关。