Seismic Ground Motion Expected for the Eastern District of Naples

The seismic ground motion of a test area in the eastern district of Naples is computed with a hybrid technique based on the mode summation and the finite difference methods. This technique allows us the realistic modelling of source and propagation effects, including local soil conditions. In the modelling, we consider the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, a good example of strong shaking for the area of Naples, which is located about 90 km from the epicenter.The detailed geological setting is reconstructed from a large number of drillings. The sub-soil is mainly formed by alluvial (ash, stratified sand and peat) and pyroclastic materials overlying a pyroclastic rock (yellow neapolitan tuff), representing the neapolitan bedrock. The detailed information available on mechanical properties of the sub-soil and its geometry warrants the application of the sophisticated hybrid technique.As expected, the sedimentary cover causes an increase of the signal's amplitudes and duration. If thin peat layers are present, the amplification effects are reduced, and the peak ground accelerations are similar to those observed for the bedrock model. This can be explained by the backscattering of wave energy at such layers, that tend to seismically decouple the upper from the lower part of the structure.For SH-waves, the influence of the variations of the S-wave velocities on the spectral amplification is studied, by considering locally measured velocities and values determined from near-by down-hole measurements. The comparison between the computed spectral amplifications confirms the key role of an accurate determination of the seismic velocities of the different layers.The comparison performed between a realistic 2-D seismic response and a standard 1-D response, based on the vertical propagation of waves in a plane layered structure, shows considerable difference, from which it is evident that serious caution must be taken in the modelling of expected ground motion at a specific site.     

Numerical modeling of 3-D terrain effect on MT field

Using the boundary element method, the numerical modeling problem of three-dimensional terrain effect on magnetotelluric (MT) field is solved. This modeling technique can be run on PC in the case of adopting special net division. The result of modeling test for 2-D terrain by this modeling technique is basically coincident with that by 2-D modeling technique, but there is a great difference between the results of 3-D and 2-D modeling for 3-D terrain. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

Thermodynamic Modelling of Ore-Forming Mechanism of the Changkeng Gold-Silver Deposits in Guangdong Province

The Changkeng gold-silver deposits consist of a sediment-hosted, disseminated gold deposit and a replacement-type silver deposit. The mineralizations of gold and silver are zoned and closely related to the silicification of carbonate and clastic rocks, so that siliceous ores dominate in the deposit. The mineralizing temperature ranges mainly from 300 to 170℃, and K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and Cl- are the major ions in the ore-forming fluid. Calculations of distribution of metal complexes show that gold is mainly transported by hydrosulphide complexes, but chloride complexes of silver, iron, lead, and zinc, which are transformed into hydroxyl and hydrosulphide complexes under neutral to weak-alkaline circumstances in the late stage, predominate in the ore-forming solutions. Water-rock interaction is confirmed to be the effective mechanism for the formation of silver ores by computer modelling of reaction of hydrothermal solution with carbonate rocks. The solubility analyses demonstrate that the precipitation     

Laboratory and Numerical Studies of the Convective Boundary Layer Capped by a Strong Inversion

The convective boundary layer (CBL) with a wide range of stability is simulated experimentally using a thermally stratified wind tunnel, and numerically by direct numerical simulation (DNS). The turbulence structures and flow characteristics of various CBL flows, capped by a strong temperature inversion and affected by surface shear, are investigated. The various vertical profiles of turbulence statistics similar to those from the observed CBL in the field are successfully simulated in both the wind-tunnel experiment and in DNS. The comparison of the wind-tunnel data and DNS results with those of atmospheric observations and water-tank studies shows the crucial dependence of the turbulence statistics in the upper part of the layer on the strength of the inversion layer, as well as the modification of the CBL turbulence regime by the surface shear.     

多年冻土地区砂砾路面路堤临界高度数值分析

In permafrost regions of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the critical embankment height must be considered in the process of the construction of highway, especially for the global climatic warming. In this paper, the two-dimensional numerical analysis for the critical embankment height (for gravel road surface and coarse-grained soil) has been performed by using thefinite element method. In the calculation, we think that the service life of the construction is at least 50 years. The mean annual air temperatures applied to the calculation model are -6.5 ℃, -6.0 ℃, -5.5 ℃, -5.0 ℃, -4.5 ℃ and -4.0 ℃, respectively, and the value of temperature rise are taken as 1.10℃ in the coming 50 years. The minimum embankment heights derived from the analysis are 0.85 m, 0.92 m, 1.01 m, 1.18 m, 1.60 m and 2.66 m for the different mean annual air temperatures and the maximum embankment heights are 7.68 m,7.55 m, 7.34 m, 7.00 m, 6.45 m and 5.85m, accordingly. On condition that the service life of embankment is 50 years, the critical value of the mean annual air temperature is -3.5 ℃. Namely, in the areas where the mean annual air temperature is higher than -3.5 ℃, the critical embankment height does not exist.     

拉萨城市地下水系统可开采资源评价

本文在青藏铁路区域水文地质调查工作的基础上,以系统理论的基本原理为出发点,利用地下水系统数值模型的运行,来对拉萨城市地下水系统可开采资源进行评价,取得了比较理想的结果.     

A Least-squares Approach to Depth Determination from Numerical Horizontal Self-potential Gradients

We have developed a least-squares minimization approach to depth determination of a buried ore deposit from numerical horizontal gradients obtained from self-potential (SP) data using filters of successive window lengths (graticule spacings). The problem of depth determination from SP gradients has been transformed into the problem of finding a solution to a nonlinear equation of the form f(z)=0. Formulas have been derived for vertical and horizontal cylinders and spheres. Procedures are also formulated to estimate the electrical dipole moment and the polarization angle. The method is applied to synthetic data with and without random noise. Finally, the validity of the method is tested on two field examples. In both cases, the depth obtained is found to be in a very good agreement with that obtained from drilling information.     

PART II: Comparison of Theoretical and Experimental Estimations of Site Effects

— To check the reliability and the quality of the theoretically estimated ground responses obtained from the 2-D simulation by the application of the hybrid method in PART-I, we compare some of them with those obtained at the same sites from observed data using the Standard Spectral Ratio (SSR). The comparison validates our synthetic modeling and shows that in cases of complex geometries, the use of at least 2-D numerical simulations is required in order to reliably evaluate site effects and thus facilitate the microzonation of the city of Thessaloniki.     

Simulation of oasis breeze circulation in the arid region of the Northwestern China

In this paper, the process of oasis-desert circulation (ODC) is simulated by MM5V3.5 model through designing an ideal oasis-desert scheme and assuming that initial atmosphere is at rest (V = 0). The findings showed that the key of forming special oasis boundary structure is the difference of energy and water between oasis and desert. The evaporation of oasis surface consumes heat energy, and the low temperature of oasis causes an oasis breeze circulation (OBC), which drives an ODC with a downdraft over the oasis and an updraft over the desert. Later, the cold, dry and stable boundary over oasis is gradually formed, on the contrary,the atmospheric boundary over desert on the edge of oasis is hot, humid and unstable and its height is about 600 hPa. The updraft over the desert forms a wet ring that acts as a vertical wall weakening the low-level moisture exchange between the oasis and desert. The downdraft of OBC increases the atmospheric stability that reduces the oasis evaporation. The low-level outflow from the oasis (into the desert) prevents the dry, hot air flowing from the desert into the oasis.Thus an oasis self-preservation mechanism may be formed due to OBC. The horizontal area influenced by oasis is twice as oasis area and the vertical range is four times as oasis. The ODC is strong in the daytime and reaches the strongest at 17:00, and the influenced area is the largest at 20:00.     

In-plane and anti-plane strong shaking of soil systems and structures

The concept of in-plane and anti-plane shaking is introduced with a rigid block on a plane surface with Coulomb friction. Using a hypoplastic constitutive relation to model the mechanical behaviour of the soil, numerical solutions for a rigid block on a thin dry or saturated soil layer are obtained. The coupled nature of dynamic problems involving granular materials is shown, i.e. the motion of the block changes the soil state—skeleton stresses and density—which in turn affects the block motion. Motions of the block as well as soil response can be more realistically calculated by the new model. The same constitutive equation is applied to the numerical simulation of the propagation of plane waves in homogeneous and layered level soil deposits induced by a wave coming from below. Experiments with a novel laminar shake box as well as real seismic records from well-documented sites during strong earthquakes are used to verify the adequacy of the hypoplasticity-based numerical model for the prediction of soil response during strong earthquakes. The response of a homogeneous earth dam subjected to in-plane and anti-plane shaking is investigated numerically. In-plane and anti-plane shaking is shown to cause nearly the same spreading of a sand dam under drained conditions, whereas under undrained conditions anti-plane shaking causes stronger spreading of the dam. The dynamic behaviour of a breakwater founded on rockfill and soft clay during the 1995 Kobe earthquake is back-calculated to show the good performance of the proposed numerical model also with a structure. Section 9 deals with buildings on mattresses of densified cohesionless soils or fine-grained soils with granular columns, slopes with ‘hidden’ dams and structures on piles traversing clayey slopes to show the suitability of hypoplasticity-based models for the earthquake-resistant design and safety assessment of geotechnical systems.