Effect of Fly Ash and Rice Husk Ash on Index and Engineering Properties of Expansive Clays

Many innovative ameliorating techniques including chemical stabilization have been in practice for improving the behaviour of problematic, highly expansive clays. This paper presents a comparative study on the effect of fly ash (FA) and rice husk ash (RHA) on index and engineering properties of an expansive clay. Liquid limit (LL), plastic limit, plasticity index (PI) and free swell index (FSI), and coefficient of permeability (k), unconfined compressive strength and swelling pressure were determined at varying quantities of FA and RHA. Coefficient of permeability, swelling pressure and unconfined compressive strength of the FA-clay and the RHA-clay blends were determined at their respective OMC and MDD obtained from Proctor compaction tests. LL, PI and FSI decreased significantly with increasing FA and RHA contents. Coefficient of permeability, however, increased with additive content. Further, swelling pressure of the blends decreased with increasing additive content.     

Estimating longitudinal dispersion in rivers using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers

The longitudinal dispersion coefficient (D) is an important parameter needed to describe the transport of solutes in rivers and streams. The dispersion coefficient is generally estimated from tracer studies but the method can be expensive and time consuming, especially for large rivers. A number of empirical relations are available to estimate the dispersion coefficient; however, these relations are known to produce estimates within an order of magnitude of the tracer value. The focus of this paper is on using the shear-flow dispersion theory to directly estimate the dispersion coefficient from velocity measurements obtained using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). Using tracer and hydrodynamic data collected within the same river reaches, we examined conditions under which the ADCP and tracer methods produced similar results. Since dead zones / transient storage (TS) are known to influence the dispersion coefficient, we assessed the relative importance of dead zones in different stream reaches using two tracer-based approaches: (1) TS modeling which explicitly accounts for dead zones and (2) the advection–dispersion equation (ADE) which does not have separate terms for dead zones. Dispersion coefficients based on the ADE tend to be relatively high as they describe some of the effects of dead zones as well. Results based on the ADCP method were found to be in good agreement with the ADE estimates indicating that storage zones play an important role in the estimated dispersion coefficients, especially at high flows. For the river sites examined in this paper, the tracer estimates of dispersion were close to the median values of the ADCP estimates obtained from multiple datasets within a reach. The ADCP method appears to be an excellent alternative to the traditional tracer-based method if care is taken to avoid spurious data and multiple datasets are used to compute a distance-weighted average or other appropriate measure that represents reach-averaged conditions.     

MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR LIQUID-SOLID TWO-PHASE FLOW

I INTRODUCTIONTurbulence models for single-phase fluid flows have been developed and widely applied in mechanical,aeronautical, environmental and hydraulic engineering, and other fields. The closure techniques for theReynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for various levels of models including the simple turbulencemodel, one-equation turbulence model, k-s turbulence model and turbulence stress/flux model have beenverified to be physically reasonable and have acceptable accuracy in app…     

Silica fume stabilization of an expansive clay subgrade and the effect of silica fume-stabilised soil cushion on its CBR

ABSTRACT

Expansive soil subgrades, which are subjected to dual swell-shrink problem consequent upon absorption and evaporation of water, need to be improved by chemical stabilization or compacted cushion or geosynthetic reinforcement in order that pavements constructed over them are even, stable and safe. This paper presents extensive experimental data on plasticity, free swell index (FSI) and compaction characteristics of a highly swelling expansive clay stabilized with varying silica fume contents. In another series of tests on a laterite soil to be used as a cushion over the expansive clay subgrade, plasticity properties, compaction characteristics and strength characteristics were determined at varied silica fume contents. Further, CBR of the expansive clay subgrade was determined in the laboratory stabilizing it with varied silica fume contents and providing a cushion of 50 mm thickness of silica fume-stabilized lateritic soil. Liquid limit (LL), plasticity index (PI) and free swell index (FSI) of the expansive clay decreased with increasing silica fume contents. The compaction and strength characteristics of both the soils improved with silica fume stabilization. The CBR of the expansive clay provided with silica fume-stabilized cushion improved significantly.     

Stable isotope analysis of consumer food webs indicates ecosystem recovery following prolonged drought in a subtropical estuarine lake

Assessing changes in food-web structure provides a useful monitoring tool for gauging the resilience of ecosystems in the face of climatic impacts. We consider the ecological resilience of a large estuarine lake (St Lucia Estuary, South Africa) in the wake of an extreme climatic event (prolonged drought). Using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes, food-web structure was assessed at five sites across the estuary during the winter and spring of 2013. Sampling occurred approximately three years after heavy rains flooded the system and returned it to a relatively diluted state following an almost decade-long drought that decimated food webs in the upper parts of the estuary due to hypersalinity effects. Comparisons of niche width and variance of consumer food webs among sites revealed a general homogenisation of food webs across the entire system, contrasting with the spatial differentiation of food webs documented during the drought phase. Our results indicate that the estuary is able to maintain ecological resilience at the whole-system level in the face of an extreme drought. This is likely facilitated by source pools of species residing in the relatively stable lower estuary, which are able to rapidly recolonise areas denuded by drought in the upper estuary.     

Biocurtain Design Using Reactive Transport Models

Bioremediation is an attractive alternative to traditional remediation methods for a variety of ground water contaminants. However, widespread implementation of bioremediation is currently limited by the complexity of the dynamic chemical and biological processes that need to be understood and incorporated into the design approach. Reactive transport models provide a powerful tool to simulate these complex interactions and, thus, can be used to improve and guide the design of bioremediation systems. We present a remediation design approach for intermittently stimulated biodegradation using multicomponent reactive transport models, parameterized using a series of nondimensional Damkohler numbers. Designs were based on either (1) a target aqueous phase concentration at the exit of the treatment system, or (2) the total contaminant mass fraction removed from a region of interest. The equation set used to develop this design approach is specific to the case of intermittent electron donor addition to drive cometabolic transformations. We illustrate the design procedure for a biocurtain that removes carbon tetrachloride. Our results for this case indicate that intermittent injection is significantly more efficient than strategies based on continuous pumping. Example design parameters include the length of the biologically active zone (i.e., biocurtain), the effective rate of degradation in this zone, and the interval between electron donor injection cycles. The presented dimensionless parametric approach can be used to design bench-scale column studies and should be helpful for scale-up to field-scale remediation systems.     

Indoor Air Background Levels of Volatile Organic Compounds and Air-Phase Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Office Buildings and Schools

A background indoor air study has been completed which includes the collection of indoor air samples from office buildings and schools. The anonymous study was designed with input from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The sampling was implemented in 2013, 2014, and 2015 and included the collection of 25 school building samples and 61 office building samples. The study generated 14,668 new indoor air background data points, with samples collected from buildings located in 26 cities in 18 states, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Washington. Indoor air background concentrations of target compound volatile organic compounds (VOCs) ranged from less than the laboratory method reporting limit of 0.044 μg/m³ to concentrations up to 1190 μg/m³, with hydrocarbon ranges from less than the reporting method limit of 10 μg/m³ to concentrations up to 3000 μg/m³. Some VOCs were identified ubiquitously in indoor air background, and some were identified at concentrations which exceeded risk-based regulatory screening levels. These study results provide useful and updated information on indoor air background and air quality in offices and schools and can be used in future regulatory guidance update considerations, for further examination of relationships between these data and residential study data, in human health risk assessments and risk communication, and in planning future studies.     

伽师地震区地壳细结构及发震断层的初步研究

199年至1998年伽师地区共出现9次震级为6.1-6.8级的强震. 在一个非常短的时间间隔内和非常小的地区范围内接连出现这么多次震级非常接近的地震,确实非常罕见. 为研究伽师强震区的深部构造背景和孕震机制,本文对伽师地震区的余震观测资料进行了分析处理. 利用联合反演技术同时得到了地震震源位置和地震区地壳三维速度结构. 余震震中沿一北北东向条带分布,与强震分布的两个条带中的北东向条带位置基本重合. 三维反演得到的速度结构结果表明,在地下12 km以下存在一条北北东向和一条北北西向的低速条带. 上述两低速条带与强震分布的两个条带位置很接近. 初步推测,低速条带对应了地壳深部的两条断裂. 在我们观测期间,北北东向断裂有微震活动,北北西向断裂相对平静.     

A Peculiar Broad Line Radio Galaxy 1938-155： VLA Observation at 90 cm

We observed 1938-155, a broad line radio galaxy (BLRG), with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 90cm with an angular resolution of 6.8" × 4.0". The source consists of two components separated by 4 arcsec (- 20kpc, for H0 = 65km s-1 Mpc-1, q0 = 0.5) along the SE-NW direction. Both components show steep-spectra with a similar spectral index α - 0.83 ± 0.07 (Sv ∝ v-α). The bright double components are surrounded by a low-brightness cocoon. The radio properties of the two bright components are consistent with the hot spots produced by twin jets. An upper limit of - 0.0008 for the core dominance parameter (R) is inferred, suggesting there is no prominent radio core in the source. Assuming a modest viewing angle 30f77, a jet velocity is estimated - 0.07 c, based on the jet to counter-jet brightness ratio (J). The lower limit in jet speed inferred is consistent with no Doppler beaming effect on the jet. The radio galaxy 1938-155 could be an exceptional BLRG with no prominent radio core or jet.     

Collapse behaviour of a lateritic soil

Collapsible soils are problematic by nature. They undergo collapse or sudden settlement or subsidence under a given stress when their water content is increased. Collapse is characterised by collapse potential expressed as ΔH/H x 100, where ΔH is collapse compression. The amount of stress applied and the water content at the time of collapse govern the amount of collapse. In other words, collapse potential depends upon the amount of stress and the water content. Loess and other wind-blown silts are examples of collapsible soils. This paper presents a parametric study on the collapse behaviour of a lateritic soil. Remoulded specimens of a lateritic soil passing through a 425 µm sieve were compacted in 1-D consolidometer or oedometer at a density of 13 kN/m³ for studying collapse under varied initial moisture contents and initial surcharge pressures. Collapse compression of the samples was induced by saturating the specimens with water contents corresponding to 100% degree of saturation. After collapse occurred, the 1-D consolidation tests were continued up to an applied stress of 160 kPa. Collapse behaviour was studied for the applied initial pressures (σ_i) of 10, 20 and 40 kPa and for the initial water contents (w_i) of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. Collapse compression and collapse potential decreased with increasing w_i for all σ_i.