Study of Radiolaria in the surface sediments from the area east of Taiwan Island

The species and characteristics of Radiolaria in the surface sediments were systematcally investigated in the sea east of Taiwan Island. One hundred and seventy-eight species of Radiolaria (including 21 unidentified species) have been identified in the surface sediments, and they belong to 2 orders, 34 families and 101 genera. Among them there are 19 families, 70 genera, 134 species of Spumellaria and 15 families, 31 genera, 44 species of Nassellaria. Of the 178 species of Radiolaria, the individual number of Spumellaria amounts to 88.1% of the total individual number, and that of Nassellaria amounts to 11.9% of the total individual number. It is shown that most of the dominant species belong to the tropical and subtropical dominant species and are brought into the area mainly by the Kuroshio, and some affecting factors including the submarine topography, submarine sediments, upwelling current east of Taiwan Island and carbonate dissolution play a secondary role in forming the Radiolaria distributions.

On the relationships between the radial tidal current field and the radial sand ridges in the southern Yellow Sea: a numerical simulation

The ori-in of the radial sand ridges (RSRs) in the southern Yellow Sea has been a controversial problem since they were discovered in the early 1960s. To resolve the problem, two key questions need to be answered: (1) was the radial tidal current field in the RSR area generated by the submarine topography, or (2) did it exist before the RSRs occurred? In this study, the M-2 tide and tidal currents in the RSR area were simulated with a two-dimensional tidal model using a flat bottom and a shelving slope topography, the results being then compared with the field data. It is demonstrated that the radial tidal current field in the southern Yellow Sea is independent of bottom topography, and may thus be the controlling factor generating the RSRs. The radial tidal current field probably existed before the RSRs were formed.

Nonlinear Analysis of Submarine Pipelines During Single Point Lifting

基于管道微单元体平衡建立了海管单点提升的非线性力学模型的控制微分方程组,使用变弧长的无量纲代换将动边界问题化为固定边界的两点边值问题,利用maple环境下编制的两点边值问题的打靶法程序得到了该问题在各个提升阶段的数值解答和在单点提升过程中管道的极限弯矩约为0.71q~{1/3}(EI)~{2/3}。

Wave-soil-pipe coupling effect on submarine pipeline on-bottom stability

Wave-soil-pipe coupling effect on the untrenched pipeline stability on sands is for the first time investigated experimentally. Tests are conducted in the U-shaped water tunnel, which generates an oscillatory how, simulating the water particle movements with periodically changing direction under the wave action. Characteristic times and phases during the instability process are revealed. Linear relationship between Froude number and non-dimensional pipe weight is obtained. Effects of initial embedment and loading history are observed. Test results between the wavesoil-pipe interaction and pipe-soil interaction under cyclic mechanical loading are compared. The mechanism is briefly discussed. For applying in the practical design, more extensive and systematic investigations are needed.

Experimental Study on Vortex-Induced Vibrations of Submarine Pipeline Near Seabed Boundary in Ocean Currents

Unlike most previous studies on vortex- induced vibrations of a cylinder far from a boundary, this paper focuses On the influences of close proximity of a submarine pipeline to a rigid seabed boundary upon the dynamic responses of the pipeline in ocean currents. The effects of gap-to-diameter ratio and those of the stability parameter on the amplitude and frequency responses of a pipeline are investigated experimentally with a novel hydro-elastic facility. A comparison is made between the present experimental results Of the amplitude and frequency responses for the pipes with seabed boundary effects and those for wall-free cylinders given by Govardhan and Williamson (2000) and Anand ( 1985). The comparison shows that the close proximity of a pipeline to seabed has much influence on the vortex- induced vibrations of the pipeline. Both the width of the lock-in ranges in terms of V, and the dimensionless amplitude ratio A(max)/D become larger with the decrease of the gap-to-diameter ratio e/D. Moreover, the vibration of the pipeline becomes easier to occur and its amplitude response becomes more intensive with the decrease of the stability parameter, while the pipeline frequency responses are affected slightly by the stability parameter.

Experiments on interaction between current-induced vibration and scour of submarine pipelines on sandy bottom

In order to understand the dynamic behavior of submarine pipelines exposed to current and the mechanism of the interaction between current-induced vibration and scour of pipelines on a sandy bottom, an experimental investigation is conducted with a small scale model A test model which can be tested in the flume is set up by taking into account the typical working conditions of the pipelines and by applying the similarity theory. The interactions between the shape of the scour hole and the behavior of the pipeline as well as the flow patterns of the current are detailed, and the interaction mechanism outlined. The effect of vibration of the pipeline on the development of dynamic scour at different stages is found out. The proposed experimental method and test results provide an effective means for design of marine pipelines against scouring.

Physical modeling of untrenched submarine pipeline instability

Wave-induced instability of untrenched pipeline on sandy seabed is a `wave-soil-pipeline' coupling dynamic problem. To explore the mechanism of the pipeline instability, the hydrodynamic loading with U-shaped oscillatory flow tunnel is adopted, which is quite different from the previous experiment system. Based on dimensional analysis, the critical conditions for pipeline instability are investigated by altering pipeline submerged weight, diameter, soil parameters, etc. Based on the experimental results, different linear relationships between Froude number (Fr) and non-dimensional pipeline weight (G) are obtained for two constraint conditions. Moreover, the effects of loading history on the pipeline stability are also studied. Unlike previous experiments, sand scouring during the process of pipe's losing stability is detected in the present experiments. In addition, the experiment results are compared with the previous experiments, based on Wake II model for the calculation of wave-induced forces upon pipeline. It shows that the results of two kinds of experiments are comparable, but the present experiments provide better physical insight of the wave-soil-pipeline coupling effects.

Rossby Waves With Linear Topography In Barotropic Fluids

Rossby waves are the most important waves in the atmosphere and ocean, and are parts of a large-scale system in fluid. The theory and observation show that, they satisfy quasi-geostrophic and quasi-static equilibrium approximations. In this paper, solitary Rossby waves induced by linear topography in barotropic fluids with a shear flow are studied. In order to simplify the problem, the topography is taken as a linear function of latitude variable y, then employing a weakly nonlinear method and a perturbation method, a KdV (Korteweg-de Vries) equation describing evolution of the amplitude of solitary Rossby waves induced by linear topography is derived. The results show that the variation of linear topography can induce the solitary Rossby waves in barotropic fluids with a shear flow, and extend the classical geophysical theory of fluid dynamics.

Atomic force microscopy observations of the topography of regenerated silk fibroin aggregations

How fibroin molecules fold themselves and further self-assemble into aggregations with specific structures when the solution concentration increases is the key to understanding the natural silk-forming process of the silkworm. A regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin solution was prepared, and serially diluted solutions were coated on aminated coverslips. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) observations of the topography of fibroin molecules revealed a transformation from rodlike aggregations 100-200 nm long to small globules 50 mn in diameter with decreasing concentrations. When the incubation duration increased, the aggregations of fibroin molecules showed a self-assembling process, which was measured with AFM. In particular, after the molecules were incubated for more than 20 min, rodlike micelles formed and were distributed evenly on the surface of the aminated slides. Flow chamber technology was used to study the effect of the shear loading on the topography of the fibroin molecular aggregations. After a shear loading was applied, larger rodlike particles formed at a higher incubation concentration in comparison with those at a lower concentration and were obviously oriented along the direction of fluid flow.

Physical Modeling of Current-Induced Seabed Scour around a Vibrating Submarine Pipeline

Most of the existing researches either focus on vortex-induced-vibrations (VIV) of a pipeline near a rigid boundary, or on seabed scour around a fixed pipeline. In the fields, pipeline vibration and seabed scour are actually always coupled. Based on the similarity analysis, a series of tests were conducted with a hydro-elastic facility to investigate the influence of pipe vibration on the local scour and the effects of scour process on the pipeline dynamic responses. Experimental results indicate that, there exist two phases in the process of sand scouring around the pipeline with small embedment, i.e. Phase I: scour beneath pipe without VIV, and Phase II: scour with VIV of pipe. It is also found that the gap-to-diameter ratio (e/D) has much effect upon the scour depth for the fixed pipes. For a given value of e/D, the vibrating pipes with close proximity to seabed may induce a deeper scour hole than the fixed ones. Within the examined gap-to-diameter ratio range (425 < e/D < 0.75), the influences of gap-to-diameter ratio on the maximum values of scour-depth for the case of vibrating pipes are not as much as those for the case of fixed pipes.

Occurrence of spanning of a submarine pipeline with initial embedment

For better understanding the mechanism of the occurrence of pipeline span for a pipeline with initial embedment, physical and numerical methods are adopted in this study. Experimental observations show that there often exist three characteristic phases in the process of the partially embedded pipeline being suspended: (a) local scour around pipe; (b) onset of soil erosion beneath pipe; and (c) complete suspension of pipe. The effects of local scour on the onset of soil erosion beneath the pipe are much less than those of soil seepage failure induced by the pressure drop. Based on the above observations and analyses, the mechanism of the occurrence of pipeline spanning is analyzed numerically in view of soil seepage failure. In the numerical analyses, the current-induced pressure along the soil surface in the vicinity of the pipe (i.e. the pressure drop) is firstly obtained by solving the N-S equations, thereafter the seepage flow in the soil is calculated with the obtained pressure drop as the boundary conditions along the soil surface. Numerical results indicate that the seepage failure (or piping) may occur at the exit of the seepage path when the pressure gradient gets larger than the critical value. The numerical treatment provides a practical tool for evaluating the potentials for the occurrence of pipe span due to the soil seepage failure.

In situ surface topography measurement method of granite base in scanning wafer stage with laser interferometer

Topography of a granite surface has an effect on the vertical positioning of a wafer stage in a lithographic tool, when the wafer stage moves on the granite. The inaccurate measurement of the topography results in a bad leveling and focusing performance. In this paper, an in situ method to measure the topography of a granite surface with high accuracy is present. In this method, a high-order polynomial is set up to express the topography of the granite surface. Two double-frequency laser interferometers are used to measure the tilts of the wafer stage in the X- and Y-directions. From the sampling tilts information, the coefficients of the high-order polynomial can be obtained by a special algorithm. Experiment results shows that the measurement reproducibility of the method is better than 10 nm. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Multi-channel 2-D pattern transfer model based on imaging optics for submarine laser uplink communication

An optical communication scheme of 2-D pattern transfer based on imaging optics for submarine laser uplink communication (SLUC) is suggested. Unlike the methods aiming at avoiding neighboring crosstalk used in traditional multi-channel optical beam transferring, we make full use of the overlapping of each spreading beam other than controlling divergence effect of each beam to avoid interference noise. The apparent parameters have been introduced to simplify theoretical analysis of optical pattern transfer problem involving underwater condition, with the help of which the complex beam propagation inside two kinds of mediums can be easily reduced to brief beam transfer only inside air medium. In this paper, optical transmission path and receiver terminal optics geometry have been described in detail. The link range equation and system uplink performance analysis have also been given. At last, results of a proof-of-concept experiment indicate good feasibility of the proposed SLUC model. © 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.