Deterioration of the volcanic kerb and pavement stones in a humid environment in the city centre of Izmir, Turkey

?zmir is the third largest city in Turkey and has being the centre of art, culture, tourism and trade activities throughout the 5,000 years of its history. Natural stones brought from different parts of the world have been widely used for construction of the prestigious buildings, monuments and roads etc., in the past in the city. Renovation of the street pavements and public gathering areas in the city centre has been undertaken by the Metropolitan Municipality in 2000 and continued through the year of 2001. These renovation activities have mainly been carried out in the streets running parallel to the sea shore. Volcanic rocks brought from the Central Anatolia Ankara-Gölba?? (andesites) and Kayseri-?ncesu (tuffs) have been used in the renovation works. These rocks have shown extensive deteriorations within 4 years of their usage between 2001 and 2005 under the influence of different environmental factors. In this study, the deteriorations developed in the recently placed volcanic rocks used as kerb and pavement stones in the city centre of ?zmir in the light of their mineralogical, chemical, physical and mechanical properties, used locations and the environmental factors are presented.     

Cacti–shrub interactions in the coastal desert of northern Sinaloa, Mexico

Spatial patterns and replacement in ten cacti were studied on an island of the coastal desert of Sinaloa, México. Four platyopuntias had 74–92% of their individuals beneath shrub canopies, whereas three globose cacti, one columnar cactus and two cylindropuntias had similar or higher percentages of individuals in open spaces. This study advances the idea that open-space colonization is enhanced by less harsh physical and biotic conditions in coastal deserts, and by certain morphological and physiological adaptations of cacti. The absence of nurse-shrub replacement is understood as a result of induced co-existence by physical damage from cyclones in the coastal zone.     

Organic litter: dominance over stones as a source of interrill flow roughness on low‐gradient desert slopes at Fowlers Gap,arid western NSW,Australia

Thirty‐six runoff plot experiments provide data on flow depths, speeds, and Darcy–Weisbach friction coefficients (f) on bare soil surfaces, and surfaces to which were added sufficient extra plant litter or surface stones to provide projected cover of 5, 10 and 20 per cent. Precision flow depth data were derived with a computer‐controlled gantry and needle gauge for two different discharges for each plot treatment. Taking a fixed flow intensity (Reynolds number, Re = 150) for purposes of comparison shows means of f = 17·7 for bare soil surfaces, f = 11·4 for added stone treatments, and f = 23·8 for added litter treatments. Many individual values of f for stone treatments are lower than for the bare soil surface, but all litter treatments show increases in fcompared to bare soil. The lowering of f in stone treatments relates to the submerged volume that the stones occupied, and the associated concentration of flow onto a smaller part of the plot surface. This leads to locally higher flow intensities and lower frictional drag along threads of flow that the obstacles create. Litter causes higher frictional drag because the particles are smaller, and, for the same cover fraction, are 100 times more numerous and provide 20 times the edge or perimeter length. Along these edges, which in total exceed 2·5 m g^?1 (equivalent to 500 m m^?2 for a loading of 2 t ha^?1), surface tension draws up water from between the litter particles. This reduces flow depth there, and as a consequence of the lower flow intensity, frictional drag rises. Furthermore, no clear passage remains for the establishment of flow threads. These findings apply to shallow interrill flows in which litter is largely immobile. The key new result from these experiments is that under these conditions, a 20 per cent cover of organic litter can generate interrill frictional retardation that exceeds by nearly 41 per cent that of a bare soil surface, and twice that contributed by the same cover fraction of surface stones. Even greater dominance by litter can be anticipated at the many dryland sites where litter covers exceed those tested here. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

红层泥岩半刚性基床结构动态变形试验研究

高速铁路要为列车的高速行驶提供一个高平顺性和稳定性的轨下基础,而路基作为轨道结构的基础,必须具有强度高、刚度大、稳定性和耐久性好的特性。由于红层泥岩属于软岩,工程稳定性差,以红层泥岩作为基床的填料,其刚度明显不足,所以为了弥补基床表层的不足,在其顶部添加一层水泥稳定级配碎石。为了验证这些措施的效果,以便指导工程设计和施工,通过足尺动态模型试验,模拟在实际荷载条件下基床的动态变形特性,结果表明,采用水泥稳定级配碎石作为基床表层填料,静态变形明显降低,能够大幅降低动荷载作用时的动变形,减少了基床结构的永久变形,增强了轨道结构的稳定性。     

中国赏石文化内涵之探讨

本文通过对中国赏石文化的历史、理念、人文、艺术和学术的探讨,试图从中发掘中国赏石文化的内涵,把古代＂瘦漏透皱＂和现代＂形质纹色＂的相石标准,提升到＂道魂气韵＂的赏石意境。     

微波等离子体炬质谱技术快速鉴别天然石材与人造石材

天然石材主要有大理石、花岗岩等;人造石材多以不饱和聚酯树脂为基料,添加适量的无机物粉料和添加剂固化制成。由于石材种类繁多,并且各种石材的岩体所含矿物成分也有差异,当前很少应用化学成分分析方法准确、快速鉴别天然和人造石材,仅有的红外光谱法由于对待测物纯度的要求较高而具局限性。本文基于微波等离子体炬源(MPT)同时具有热解吸与强电离能力,能在短时间内离子化待测物的特点,采用微波等离子体炬质谱(MPT-MS)技术,无需样品复杂预处理直接对天然与人造石材进行分析,获得正离子检测模式下在m/z 50~1000之间的石材的指纹谱图,并运用化学计量学的主成分分析(PCA)方法处理所获取的数据,实现了不同建筑石材的区分。结果表明,MPT-MS能够获得石材丰富的指纹谱图,结合PCA方法能够快速鉴别天然石材与人造石材,天然石材中解吸出的物质主要为CO₂和H₂O的团簇分子;而人造石材中解吸出的主要成分为有机物(人为添加的黏合剂等)。本研究采用的MPT-MS技术无需采用喷雾、激光、基质和加热等方法辅助,并且无需对石材进行任何复杂的处理即可进行质谱分析,从而获取石材表面及内部物质的质谱信息,为快速直接鉴定石材样品提供了一种新的质谱分析方法。     

广西平桂地区观赏石简介

广西平桂地区观赏石资源丰富。本文简介该区观赏石的常见品种及其特点、成因类型、分布规律、质量评价及开发前景。     

安徽省观赏石资源开发利用研究

观赏石是一种可开发利用的经济矿产资源,安徽复杂的地质背景造就了丰富多样的观赏石资源,为了合理开发和利用安徽的观赏石资源,本文对安徽观赏石资源的品种、分布、开发利用现状与前景、存在的主要问题进行了初步研究,并提出合理开发和利用观赏石资源的建议.     

The use of X-ray tomography in the study of water repellents and consolidants

To reduce the weathering rate of natural building stones, a wide variety of water repellents and consolidants are commercially available. Although a lot of research is performed on these products, it remains difficult to determine which product is appropriate to use for a certain type of building stone. Each type of building stone has its own petrographic characteristics (mineralogy, texture, …), leading to typical physical and technical properties which influence its rate of decay. The localisation of the products inside a stone type is not only depending on the properties of the products themselves, but also linked to the texture and structure of the stone. The impregnation depth of the products strongly influences their efficiency and is therefore a key issue in the determination if a product is functional for a certain type of stone. X-ray micro-CT has recently been introduced as a non-destructive material evaluation technique for engineering and geology purposes. The fact that micro-CT can provide information about the internal structure and properties of natural building stones, is a major advantage in the study of their conservation. Firmly linked with more classical research techniques, this non-destructive technique offers an extra dimension to the cultural heritage research.In this paper, non-destructive X-ray computed micro-tomography (micro-CT) turns out to be a powerful tool as it can visualise the presence of water repellents and consolidants inside the stone and can help to detect the influence that these treatments exert on porosity and pore-size distribution. For the visualization of the product its atomic number and density and the amount of product inside the natural building stone is crucial. Besides the contrast in attenuation, the resolution of the micro-CT also needs to be taken into account to obtain a good contrast between stone and product. By doping with 3-bromopropyltrimethoxysilane, more contrast occurs between the stone material and the conservation product. When the amount of product inside the samples is very low and the product is homogeneously spread inside the sample, the doped product is difficult to distinguish from the stone material due to the resolution of the micro-CT. When the amount of doped product inside the stone material reaches a certain threshold value, the dope will appear in the 2D cross-sections derived from micro-CT, creating a good visualization of the products inside the stone samples.     

Fire severity and surface rock fragments cause patchy distribution of soil water repellency and infiltration rates after burning

Although fire‐induced soil water repellency (SWR) and its effects on soil hydrology and geomorphology have been studied in detail, very few studies have considered the effect of rock fragments resting on the soil surface or partly embedded in soil. In this research, we have studied the effect of rock fragments on the strength and spatial distribution of fire‐induced SWR at different fire severities. A fire‐affected area was selected for this experiment and classified into different zones according to fire severity (unburned, low, moderate and high) and rock fragment cover (low, <20% and high, >60%). During 7 days after fire, SWR and infiltration rates were assessed in the soil surface covered by individual rock fragments and in the midpoint between two adjacent rock fragments (with maximum spacing of 20 cm). SWR increased with fire severity. Rock fragments resting on the soil surface increased the heterogeneity of the spatial distribution of fire‐induced SWR. SWR increased significantly with rock fragment cover in bare areas under moderate and high fire severity, but quantitatively important changes were only observed under high fire severity. In areas with a low rock fragment cover, water repellency from soil surfaces covered by rock fragments increased relative to bare soil surfaces, with increasing SWR. In areas with a high rock fragment cover, SWR increased significantly from non‐covered to covered soil surfaces only after low‐severity burning. Rock fragment cover did not affect infiltration rates, although it decreased significantly in soil surfaces after high‐severity burning in areas under low and high rock fragment cover. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.