Countermeasures for breakwater foundation subjected to foreshocks and main shock of earthquake loading

Coastal protective structures, such as composite breakwaters, are generally vulnerable to earthquake. It was observed that breakwaters damage mainly due to failure of their foundations. However, the seismically induced failure process of breakwater foundation has not been well understood. This study describes failure mechanism of breakwater foundation as well as a newly developed reinforcing model for breakwater foundation that can render resiliency to breakwater against earthquake-related disasters. Steel sheet piles and gabions were used as reinforcing materials for foundation. The experimental program consisted of a series of shaking table tests for conventional and reinforced foundation of breakwater. Numerical analyses were conducted using finite difference method, and it was observed that the numerical models were capable to elucidate the seismic behavior of soil–reinforcement–breakwater system. This paper presents an overview of the results of experimental and numerical studies of the seismic response of breakwater foundation. Overall, the results of these studies show the effectiveness of the reinforced foundation in mitigating the earthquake-induced damage to the breakwater. Moreover, numerical simulation was used for parametric study to determine the effect of different embedment depths of sheet piles on the performance of breakwater foundation subjected to seismic loading.     

LO Pegasi: an investigation of multiband optical polarization

We present BVR polarimetric study of the cool active star LO Pegasi (LO Peg) for the first time. LO Peg was found to be highly polarized among the cool active stars. Our observations yield average values of polarization in LO Peg:   P_B = 0.387 ± 0.004 per cent, θ_B= 88°± 1°; P_V = 0.351 ± 0.004 per cent, θ_V= 91°± 1°  and   P_R = 0.335 ± 0.003 per cent, θ_R= 91°± 1°  . Both the degree of polarization and the position angle are found to be variable. The semi-amplitude of the polarization variability in B, V and R bands is found to be  0.18 ± 0.02, 0.13 ± 0.01  and  0.10 ± 0.02  per cent, respectively. We suggest that the levels of polarization observed in LO Peg could be the result of scattering of an anisotropic stellar radiation field by an optically thin circumstellar envelope or scattering of the stellar radiation by prominence-like structures.     

Countermeasures for enhancing the stability of composite breakwater under earthquake and subsequent tsunami

Many breakwaters have collapsed in the past due to earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis, resulting in considerable devastation as the breakwaters failed to prevent the tsunami from entering the coastal plain areas. Breakwater failures are mainly caused by damage to its foundation ground. However, the damage mechanism of breakwater foundation during earthquakes and tsunamis remains unclear. This study focuses on the breakwater failure mechanism due to collapse of its foundation under the action of an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. In addition, reinforcing countermeasures for breakwater foundation to mitigate damage due to compound geodisasters triggered by earthquakes and tsunamis are proposed. Sheet piles and gabions were used in the breakwater foundation as reinforcing countermeasures. To evaluate the effectiveness of the reinforced foundation, a series of shaking table tests and hydraulic model tests were performed. The tsunami overflow tests were conducted on the same model after the earthquake loadings, and comparisons were made between the conventional and reinforced foundations. It was observed during the tests that the reinforced foundation could effectively reduce the damage to the breakwater caused by earthquake and tsunami-induced forces. Numerical analyses were performed to clarify the mechanism of the soil–breakwater–reinforcement–fluid system. Overall, this study is useful in practical engineering, and the reinforcing foundation model could be adopted for offshore structures to reduce damage from earthquakes and tsunamis in the future.     

Optical polarimetric study of open clusters: distribution of interstellar matter towards NGC 654

We present new B ,  V and R linear polarimetric observations for 61 stars towards the region of the young open cluster NGC 654. In this study we found evidence for the presence of at least two layers of dust along the line of sight to the cluster. The distances to the two dust layers are estimated to be ∼200 pc and ∼1 kpc which are located much closer to the Sun than the cluster (∼2.4 kpc). Both the dust layers have their local magnetic field orientation nearly parallel to the direction of the Galactic plane. The foreground dust layer is found to have a ring morphology with the central hole coinciding with the centre of the cluster. The foreground dust grains are suggested to be mainly responsible for both the observed differential reddening and the polarization towards the cluster.     

Advanced vegetation indices for sensing paddy growth via hyperspectral measurements

In this study, field-based spectroradiometer measurements were carried out in 72 plots with eight rice varieties along with three nitrogen applications. The critical wavelengths for the studied rice varieties at which the effects of nitrogen applications on spectral reflectance response were found significant, are ρ₅₅₀, ρ₅₆₀, ρ₆₅₅, ρ₇₅₀, ρ₇₅₅, ρ₇₈₀, ρ₈₁₀, ρ₈₄₀, ρ₉₀₀, ρ₉₂₀, ρ₁₀₀₀, ρ₁₀₁₀, ρ₁₀₂₀. Using the critical wavelengths, three derived vegetation indices were compared with established indices (VI and GRI) sensitive to nitrogen. VI₁ and VI₂ were efficiently able to discriminate the level of nitrogen treatments for most of the rice genotypes whereas VI and GRI were unable to find significant difference in nitrogen treatments for rice genotypes except two. Furthermore, nitrogen difference plots exhibited that the paddy crop growth has started earlier with N₃ (150 kg/ha) than N₂ (100 kg/ha) application. Quantitative analysis of rice genotypes revealed that VI₂ can be applied functionally for the assessment of nitrogen stress in rice agriculture system.     

Mitigation of earthquake-induced damage of breakwater by geogrid-reinforced foundation

A strong earthquake often precedes a tsunami, and a breakwater may settle during the earthquake. Such seismic subsidence of the breakwater may reduce its ability to block the tsunami, and the tsunami may easily enter coastal areas by overflowing it. This study deals with the instability of a breakwater due to an earthquake. In addition, to protect a breakwater from damage caused by an earthquake, a new concept of using geogrid for reinforcing the foundation of a breakwater is introduced. To determine the behavior of unreinforced foundation and to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed reinforced foundation under different earthquake loadings, a series of shaking table tests were performed. It was observed that the earthquake generated excess pore water pressures and deformations of foundation ground were main reasons of failure of the breakwater. The reinforced foundation was found effective to reduce the earthquake-induced damage of the breakwater, and finally it makes the breakwater resilient against earthquake-induced forces. Numerical simulations were also performed to elucidate the mechanism of reinforcement–breakwater–soil–water system under different earthquake loadings.     

Spectroscopic survey of ASAS eclipsing variables: search for chromospherically active eclipsing binary stars – I

We have started a spectroscopic survey to identify new chromospherically active components and low-mass pre-main sequence (PMS) stars in recently discovered All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) eclipsing binaries. In this paper, we briefly describe our scientific motivation, the observing tools and the results obtained from the first phase of this survey. Using the available observing facilities in India, the spectroscopic observations of a sample of 180 candidate eclipsing binary stars selected from ASAS-I&II releases were carried out during 2004–2006. The strength of Hα emission was used to characterize the level of chromospheric activity. Our spectroscopic survey reveals that out of 180 stars about 36 binary systems show excess Hα emission. One of the objects in our sample, ASAS 081700-4243.8, displays very strong Hα emission. Follow-up high-resolution spectroscopic observations reveal that this object is indeed very interesting and most likely a classical Be-type system with K0III companion.