Drainage in finite-sized unsaturated zones

After the initiation of gravity drainage, water is often assumed to be either (a) draining under unit gradient, or (b) at capillary/gravity equilibrium. Both of these simplifications can be useful, but the regimes of validity of each assumption must be delineated. Water pressures are measured versus time and distance as water drains out of a 1.6 m long sand column to determine the relative effects of capillary and gravitational forces during drainage. For medium sized sands (0.15–0.3 mm in diameter), the capillary pressure is constant in space in a large region of the column for over 12 days, and the water continues to flow under unit gradient for relatively long time scales. Similar results are seen for finer sands, but with a much faster approach to equilibrium. Numerical simulations and analytical estimates are presented and compare favorably to the measurements. Together, the experimental, theoretical and analytical results are used to calculate when capillary/gravity equilibrium is reached as a function of porous media properties and length of the unsaturated zone. The ratio of the length of the unsaturated zone to the bubbling pressure is a key parameter in determining the drainage regime, and that even for relatively short unsaturated zones the equilibrium time scale can be on the order of years.     

Monitoring and modelling of pore water pressure changes and riverbank stability during flow events

Pore water pressures (positive and negative) were monitored for four years (1996–1999) using a series of tensiometer‐piezometers at increasing depths in a riverbank of the Sieve River, Tuscany (central Italy), with the overall objective of investigating pore pressure changes in response to ?ow events and their effects on bank stability. The saturated/unsaturated ?ow was modelled using a ?nite element seepage analysis, for the main ?ow events occurring during the four‐year monitoring period. Modelling results were validated by comparing measured with computed pore water pressure values for a series of representative events. Riverbank stability analysis was conducted by applying the limit equilibrium method (Morgenstern‐Price), using pore water pressure distributions obtained by the seepage analysis. The simulation of the 14 December 1996 event, during which a bank failure occurred, is reported in detail to illustrate the relations between the water table and river stage during the various phases of the hydrograph and their effects on bank stability. The simulation, according to monitored data, shows that the failure occurred three hours after the peak stage, during the inversion of ?ow (from the bank towards the river). A relatively limited development of positive pore pressures, reducing the effective stress and annulling the shear strength term due to the matric suction, and the sudden loss of the con?ning pressure of the river during the initial drawdown were responsible for triggering the mass failure. Results deriving from the seepage and stability analysis of nine selected ?ow events were then used to investigate the role of the ?ow event characteristics (in terms of peak stages and hydrograph characteristics) and of changes in bank geometry. Besides the peak river stage, which mainly controls the occurrence of conditions of instability, an important role is played by the hydrograph characteristics, in particular by the presence of one or more minor peaks in the river stage preceding the main one. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国春季沙尘天气频数的时空变化及其与地面风压场的关系

文中利用EOF和SVD方法分析了近半个世纪中国春季沙尘天气频数的时空分布特征及其与近地面风速和海平面气压的关系。中国北方大部分地区春季沙尘天气发生频数近半个世纪呈减少趋势 ,2 0世纪 70年代末以前沙尘天气发生频数较多 ,70年代末开始逐渐减少 ,1997年降到最低值 ,同期中国近地面风速也呈减小趋势 ,两者之间存在显著相关。春季海平面气压场与中国沙尘天气的发生频数有十分密切的联系 ,海平面气压在中高纬度地区降低 ,中低纬度地区升高 ,气压梯度发生改变 ,从而引起地面风速减小 ,进一步影响到沙尘天气发生频数减少     

双剪统一强度准则改进及其在岩土工程中的应用

在分析Mohr-Coulomb强度准则和双剪统一强度准则的基础上,提出了主剪面应力对和主剪面应力对的作用这2个新概念,并以此为出发点,通过考虑十二面体单元主剪面上所有3个主剪面应力对的共同作用,在双剪强度准则的基础上提出了一个新准则,并对其作了极限线分析.应用该新强度准则研究了静水压力条件下圆形巷道围岩弹塑性分析和土压力计算问题.研究表明,该准则不仅能较好地非线性反映岩土的3个基本强度特征,还解决了双剪统一准则中存在的双重破坏角问题.     

Seismic earth pressures on rigid and flexible retaining walls

While limiting-equilibrium Mononobe–Okabe type solutions are still widely used in designing rigid gravity and flexible cantilever retaining walls against earthquakes, elasticity-based solutions have been given a new impetus following the analytical work of Veletsos and Younan [23]. The present paper develops a more general finite-element method of solution, the results of which are shown to be in agreement with the available analytical results for the distribution of dynamic earth pressures on rigid and flexible walls. The method is then employed to further investigate parametrically the effects of flexural wall rigidity and the rocking base compliance. Both homogeneous and inhomogeneous retained soil is considered, while a second soil layer is introduced as the foundation of the retaining system. The results confirm the approximate convergence between Mononobe–Okabe and elasticity-based solutions for structurally or rotationally flexible walls. At the same time they show the beneficial effect of soil inhomogeneity and that wave propagation in the underlying foundation layer may have an effect that cannot be simply accounted for with an appropriate rocking spring at the base.     

Caldera formation by magma withdrawal from a reservoir beneath a volcanic edifice

Caldera formation has been explained by magma withdrawal from a crustal reservoir, but little is known about the conditions that lead to the critical reservoir pressure for collapse. During an eruption, the reservoir pressure is constrained to lie within a finite range: it cannot exceed the threshold value for eruption, and cannot decrease below another threshold value such that feeder dykes get shut by the confining pressure, which stops the eruption. For caldera collapse to occur, the critical reservoir pressure for roof failure must therefore be within this operating range. We use an analytical elastic model to evaluate the changes of reservoir pressure that are required for failure of roof rocks above the reservoir with and without a volcanic edifice at Earth's surface. With no edifice at Earth's surface, faulting in the roof region can only occur in the initial phase of reservoir inflation and affects a very small part of the focal area. Such conditions do not allow caldera collapse. With a volcanic edifice, large tensile stresses develop in the roof region, whose magnitude increase as the reservoir deflates during an eruption. The edifice size must exceed a threshold value for failure of the roof region before the end of eruption. The largest tensile stresses are reached at Earth's surface, indicating that faulting starts there. Failure affects an area whose horizontal dimensions depend on edifice and chamber dimensions. For small and deep reservoirs, failure conditions cannot be achieved even if the edifice is very large. Quantitative predictions are consistent with observations on a number of volcanoes.     

Constitutive modelling of fine-grained gassy soil: A composite approach

Fine-grained marine sediments containing large undissolved gas bubbles are widely distributed around the world. Presence of the bubbles could degrade the undrained shear strength (s_u ) of the soil, when the gas pressure u_g is relatively high as compared with the effective stress in the saturated soil matrix. Meanwhile, the addition of bubbles may also increase s_u when the difference between u_g and pore water pressure u_w becomes smaller than the water entry value, causing partial water drainage from the saturated matrix into the bubbles (bubble flooding) during globally undrained shearing. A new constitutive model for describing the two competing effects on the stress-strain relationship of fine-grained gassy soil is proposed within the framework of critical state soil mechanics. The gassy soil is considered as a three-phase composite material with compressible cavities, which allows water entry from the saturated matrix. Bubble flooding is modelled by introducing an additional positive volumetric strain increment of the saturated clay matrix, which is dependent on the difference between pore gas and pore water pressure based on experimental observations. A modified hardening law based on that of the modified Cam clay model is employed, which in conjunction with the expression for bubble flooding, can describe both the detrimental and beneficial effects of gas bubbles on soil strength and plastic hardening in shear. Only two extra parameters in addition to those in the modified Cam clay model are used. It is shown that the key features of the stress-strain relationship of three fine-grained gassy soils can be reproduced satisfactorily.     

水下收缩裂隙形成过程及裂缝充填模式研究

通过野外实地考察测试,对水下收缩裂隙整体形成过程、裂隙内充填物沉积模式、影响因素等进行了详细讨论,并且建立了相应的地质理论模型。水下收缩裂隙的形成共分4个阶段,依次为:泥水混合物进入低洼地带的初始混浊状态;沉积压实稳定阶段;水位线下降,盐度增大,裂隙形成阶段;沉积裂隙充填阶段。其中“异常高压作用”,对于初始裂隙的形成、沉积物孔隙水的有效排出以及主要渗流通道的发育起到了重要作用。单一泥质地层裂隙内充填物沉积模式与沙泥互层的多旋回地层略有差异,主要表现为沙层的润滑作用以及对早期裂隙内充填物类型的影响。上述两种地层裂隙内充填物沉积特征均与后期充注期次相对应,表现出很好的韵律性。裂隙纵剖面中生物发育层的出现,对裂隙内充填物的物理、化学性质将产生重要影响。     

多重压力对重点生态功能区农户生计资产可得性的影响——以甘南黄河水源补给区为例

重点生态功能区主要承担着提供持续、稳定生态服务的功能,农户作为维护其主体功能的最基础单元和该区最主要的经济活动主体,面临着自然、社会、政策等多重压力,其交互作用不仅加剧了农户的生计脆弱性,更影响到该区主体功能的发挥,当前急需辨明多重压力对农户生计的影响,以便寻求有效的生计脆弱性减缓对策。本文以甘南黄河水源补给区为例,运用入户调查数据与有序Logistic回归模型等方法在识别农户遭受关键压力的基础上,进一步探讨生计压力的交互作用对生计资产可得性的影响。结果显示：① 甘南黄河水源补给区大多数农户遭受自然+经济型多重压力,其中,重点保护区、恢复治理区及经济示范区农户遭受的多重压力分别以自然+经济型、自然+经济型、经济+社会型为主。② 在多重压力的冲击下,重点保护区与恢复治理区农户除了社会资产可得性变化处于稳定状态,其余各类资产可得性变化几乎处于降低态势,而经济示范区农户的金融资产与社会资产的可得性变化处于稳定状态,其余各类资产可得性变化均处于降低态势。③ 婚嫁支出高与农牧产品价格下降、牲畜患病与人畜饮用水困难、子女学费支出高+婚嫁支出高+农牧产品价格下降+养老无保障、建房开支高与生态政策、子女就业困难与农业病虫害等压力的交互作用分别对自然资产、物质资产、金融资产、社会资产、人力资产等的可得性变化影响最强烈。     

A review of the climatological characteristics of landfalling Gulf hurricanes for wind, wave, and surge hazard estimation

The climatological characteristics of landfalling Gulf of Mexico hurricanes are presented, focusing on the basic parameters needed for accurately determining the structure and intensity of hurricanes for ocean response models. These include the maximum sustained wind, radius of maximum winds, the Holland-B parameter, the peripheral or far-field pressure, the surface roughness and coefficient of drag, and the central pressure for historical hurricanes in the Gulf.Despite evidence of a slight increase in the annual number of named storms over the past 50 years, presently there is no statistically significant trend in tropical storms, hurricanes, or major hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the long-term variability of tropical cyclones in the Gulf reflects the observed variability in the Atlantic basin as a whole. Analyses of hurricane winds from multiple sources suggest the presence of a bias toward overestimating the strength of winds in the HURDAT dataset from 7% to 15%. Results presented comparing HURDAT with other sources also show an overestimation of intensity at landfall, with an estimated bias of ~10%.Finally, a review of recent studies has shown that hurricane frequencies and intensities appear to vary on a much more localized scale than previously believed. This exacerbates the sampling problem for accurate characterization of hurricane parameters for design and operational applications.