Nonlinear Finite-Element Modeling of Batter Piles under Lateral Load

In this paper, a finite-element model is developed in which the nonlinear soil behavior is represented by a hyperbolic relation for static load condition and modified hyperbolic relation, which includes both degradation and gap for a cyclic load condition. Although batter piles are subjected to lateral load, the soil resistance is also governed by axial load, which is incorporated by considering the P-Δ moment and geometric stiffness matrix. By adopting the developed numerical model, static and cyclic load analyses are performed adopting an incremental-iterative procedure where the pile is idealized as beam elements and the soil as elastoplastic spring elements. The proposed numerical model is validated with published laboratory and field pile test results under both static and cyclic load conditions. This paper highlights the importance of the degradation factor and its influence on the soil resistance-displacement (p-y) curve, number of cycles of loading, and cyclic load response.

Three phase equilibria for activity determinations: system Co Mn

A solid state e.m.f. cell with yttria-doped thoria as the electrolyte and a mixture of Cr + Cr sub 2 O sub 3 as the reference electrode, was employed for the measurement of the activity of manganese in the Co--Mn system at 1760 deg K, for 0.3 > X sub Mn > 0.05. The liquid alloy was contained in an alumina crucible and saturated with MnAl sub 2+2x O sub 4+3x . The cell can be represented by Pt, W, (Co--Mn) + MnAl sub 2+2x O sub 4+3x + Al sub 2 O sub 3 /ThO sub 2 --Y sub 2 O sub 3 /Cr + Cr sub 2 O sub 3 , Pt. The activity of manganese shows negative deviations from Raoult's law. The activities in the Co--Mn system are intermediate between those in the Fe--Mn and Ni--Mn systems. The Gibbs' energies of mixing in these systems follow the trends given by Miedema's model. 14 ref.--AA.

Gap model of one-way cyclic lateral load on vertical files in soft clay

For the analysis and design of pile foundation used for coastal structures the prediction of cyclic response, which is influenced by the nonlinear behavior, gap (pile soil separation) and degradation (reduction in strength) of soil becomes necessary. To study the effect of the above parameters a nonlinear cyclic load analysis program using finite element method is developed, incorporating the proposed gap and degradation model and adopting an incremental-iterative procedure. The pile is idealized using beam elements and the soil by number of elastoplastic sub-element springs at each node. The effect of gap and degradation on the load-deflection behavior. elasto-plastic sub-element and resistance of the soil at ground-line have been clearly depicted in this paper.

Volume change behaviour of expansive soils

Understanding the volume change behaviour of expansive soils/clays becomes a dire necessity to obtain engineering solutions to structures founded on these soils. Behaviour of expansive soils does not conform to the natural behaviour of fine grained soils. Most of the cases, the permissible heave/settlement forms the design criteria. The paper discusses the basic properties, the role of effective stress concept, basic mechanism in controlling the volume change behaviour, the role of double layer repulsion and its validity and certain basic considerations of footing resting on an expansive soil with respect to heave or settlement and the soil reinforcement as a possible engineering solution.

Identification of source of heavy metal contamination in a site - a case study

Accidental spills and improper disposal of industrial effluent/sludge containing heavy metals onto the open land or into subsurface result in soil and water contamination. Detailed investigations are carried out to identify the source of contamination of heavy metals in an industrial suburb near Bangalore in India. Detailed investigation of ground water and subsurface soil analysis for various heavy metals has been carried out. Ground water samples were collected in the entire area through the cluster of borewells. Subsurface soil samples were collected from near borewells which were found to contain heavy metals. Water samples and soils samples (after acid digestion) were analysed as per APHO-standard method of analysis. While the results of Zn, Ni and Cd showed that they are within allowable limits in the soil, the ground water and soils in the site have concentration of Cr+6 far exceeding the allowable limits (up to 832 mg/kg). Considering the topography of the area, ground water movement and results of chromium concentration in the borewells and subsurface it was possible to identify the origin, zone of contamination and the migration path of Cr+6. The results indicated that the predominant mechanism of migration of Cr+6 is by diffusion.

Impacts of climate change on regional water resources

Water is the most important medium through which climate change influences human life. Rising temperatures together with regional changes in precipitation patterns are some of the impacts of climate change that have implications on water availability, frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, soil moisture, water quality, water supply and water demands for irrigation and hydropower generation. In this article we provide an introduction to the emerging field of hydrologic impacts of climate change with a focus on water availability, water quality and irrigation demands. Climate change estimates on regional or local spatial scales are burdened with a considerable amount of uncertainty, stemming from various sources such as climate models, downscaling and hydrological models used in the impact assessments and uncertainty in the downscaling relationships. The present article summarizes the recent advances on uncertainty modeling and regional impacts of climate change for the Mahanadi and Tunga-Bhadra Rivers in India.

Numerical analysis of geocell reinforced ballast overlying soft clay subgrade

Geotextiles and geogrids have been in use for several decades in variety of geo-structure applications including foundation of embankments, retaining walls, pavements. Geocells is one such variant in geosynthetic reinforcement of recent years, which provides a three dimensional confinement to the infill material. Although extensive research has been carried on geocell reinforced sand, clay and layered soil subgrades, limited research has been reported on the aggregates/ballast reinforced with geocells. This paper presents the behavior of a railway sleeper subjected to monotonic loading on geocell reinforced aggregates, of size ranging from 20 to 75 mm, overlying soft clay subgrades. Series of tests were conducted in a steel test tank of dimensions 700 mm x 300 mm x 700 mm. In addition to the laboratory model tests, numerical simulations were performed using a finite difference code to predict the behavior of geocell reinforced ballast. The results from numerical simulations were compared with the experimental data. The numerical and experimental results manifested the importance that the geocell reinforcement has a significant effect on the ballast behaviour. The results depicted that the stiffness of underlying soft clay subgrade has a significant influence on the behavior of the geocell-aggregate composite material in redistributing the loading system.

Long-Term Environmental Correlates of Invasion by Lantana camara (Verbenaceae) in a Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest

Invasive species, local plant communities and invaded ecosystems change over space and time. Quantifying this change may lead to a better understanding of the ecology and the effective management of invasive species. We used data on density of the highly invasive shrub Lantana camara (lantana) for the period 1990-2008 from a 50 ha permanent plot in a seasonally dry tropical forest of Mudumalai in southern India. We used a cumulative link mixed-effects regression approach to model the transition of lantana from one qualitative density state to another as a function of biotic factors such as indicators of competition from local species (lantana itself, perennial grasses, invasive Chromolaena odorata, the native shrub Helicteres isora and basal area of native trees) and abiotic factors such as fire frequency, inter-annual variability of rainfall and relative soil moisture. The density of lantana increased substantially during the study period. Lantana density was negatively associated with the density of H. isora, positively associated with basal area of native trees, but not affected by the presence of grasses or other invasive species. In the absence of fire, lantana density increased with increasing rainfall. When fires occurred, transitions to higher densities occurred at low rainfall values. In drier regions, lantana changed from low to high density as rainfall increased while in wetter regions of the plot, lantana persisted in the dense category irrespective of rainfall. Lantana seems to effectively utilize resources distributed in space and time to its advantage, thus outcompeting local species and maintaining a population that is not yet self-limiting. High-risk areas and years could potentially be identified based on inferences from this study for facilitating management of lantana in tropical dry forests.

Bearing capacity of circular foundations reinforced with geogrid sheets

The ultimate bearing capacity of a circular footing, placed over a soil mass which is reinforced with horizontal layers of circular reinforcement sheets, has been determined by using the upper bound theorem of the limit analysis in conjunction with finite elements and linear optimization. For performing the analysis, three different soil media have been separately considered, namely, (i) fully granular, (ii) cohesive frictional, and (iii) fully cohesive with an additional provision to account for an increase of cohesion with depth. The reinforcement sheets are assumed to be structurally strong to resist axial tension but without having any resistance to bending; such an approximation usually holds good for geogrid sheets. The shear failure between the reinforcement sheet and adjoining soil mass has been considered. The increase in the magnitudes of the bearing capacity factors (N-c and N-gamma) with an inclusion of the reinforcement has been computed in terms of the efficiency factors eta(c) and eta(gamma). The results have been obtained (i) for different values of phi in case of fully granular (c=0) and c-phi soils, and (ii) for different rates (m) at which the cohesion increases with depth for a purely cohesive soil (phi=0 degrees). The critical positions and corresponding optimum diameter of the reinforcement sheets, for achieving the maximum bearing capacity, have also been established. The increase in the bearing capacity with an employment of the reinforcement increases continuously with an increase in phi. The improvement in the bearing capacity becomes quite extensive for two layers of the reinforcements as compared to the single layer of the reinforcement. The results obtained from the study are found to compare well with the available theoretical and experimental data reported in literature. (C) 2014 The Japanese Geotechnical Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fuzzy State Real-Time Reservoir Operation Model for Irrigation with Gridded Rainfall Forecasts

A short-term real-time operation model with fuzzy state variables is developed for irrigation of multiple crops based on earlier work on long-term steady-state policy. The features of the model that distinguish it from the earlier work are (1) apart from inclusion of fuzziness in reservoir storage and in soil moisture of crops, spatial variations in rainfall and soil moisture of crops are included in the real-time operation model by considering gridded command area with a grid size of 0.5 degrees latitude by 0.5 degrees longitude; (2) the water allocation model and soil moisture balance equations are integrated with the real-time operation model with consideration of ponding water depth for Paddy crop; the model solution specifies reservoir releases for irrigation in a 10-day time period and allocations among the crops on a daily basis at each grid by maintaining soil moisture balance at the end of the day; and (3) the release policy is developed using forecasted daily rainfall data of each grid and is implemented for the current time period using actual 10-day inflow and actual daily rainfall of each grid. The real-time operation model is applied to Bhadra Reservoir in Karnataka, India. The results obtained using the real-time operation model are compared with those of the standard operating policy model. Inclusion of fuzziness in reservoir storage and soil moisture of crops captures hydrologic uncertainties in real time. Considerations of irrigation decisions on a daily basis and the gridded command area result in variations in allocating water to the crops, variations in actual crop evapotranspiration, and variations in soil moisture of the crops on a daily basis for each grid of the command area. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Disaggregation of LST over India: comparative analysis of different vegetation indices

The non-availability of high-spatial-resolution thermal data from satellites on a consistent basis led to the development of different models for sharpening coarse-spatial-resolution thermal data. Thermal sharpening models that are based on the relationship between land-surface temperature (LST) and a vegetation index (VI) such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) or fraction vegetation cover (FVC) have gained much attention due to their simplicity, physical basis, and operational capability. However, there are hardly any studies in the literature examining comprehensively various VIs apart from NDVI and FVC, which may be better suited for thermal sharpening over agricultural and natural landscapes. The aim of this study is to compare the relative performance of five different VIs, namely NDVI, FVC, the normalized difference water index (NDWI), soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), and modified soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI), for thermal sharpening using the DisTrad thermal sharpening model over agricultural and natural landscapes in India. Multi-temporal LST data from Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors obtained over two different agro-climatic grids in India were disaggregated from 960 m to 120 m spatial resolution. The sharpened LST was compared with the reference LST estimated from the Landsat data at 120 m spatial resolution. In addition to this, MODIS LST was disaggregated from 960 m to 480 m and compared with ground measurements at five sites in India. It was found that NDVI and FVC performed better only under wet conditions, whereas under drier conditions, the performance of NDWI was superior to other indices and produced accurate results. SAVI and MSAVI always produced poorer results compared with NDVI/FVC and NDWI for wet and dry cases, respectively.

Roll Waves in Overland Flow

Roll waves are frequently observed in overland flow, especially in rill flow, which has an important effect on the development of soil erosion. Using one-dimensional St. Venant equations, this paper investigates the dynamics of periodic roll waves based on Dressler’s and Brock’s work. Under the assumption that the average flow depth equals the uniform flow depth, expressions of the roll-wave speed and roll-wave profile were obtained. Testing with the results observed by Brock (1970) for wave properties shows that these expressions can approximately describe the characteristics of periodic permanent roll waves. Numerical solutions of roll waves under specific conditions are found, which show that when a roll wave appears, the shear stress of flow increases, and the soil erosion accelerates.

Experimental Study on Convective Boiling Heat Transfer in Narrow-Gap Annulus Tubes

Since convective boiling or highly subcooled single-phase forced convection in micro-channels is an effective cooling mechanism with a wide range of applications, more experimental and theoretical studies are required to explain and verify the forced convection heat transfer phenomenon in narrow channels. In this experimental study, we model the convective boiling behavior of water with low latent heat substance Freon 113 (R-113), with the purpose of saving power consumption and visualizing experiments. Both heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics were measured in subcooled and saturated concentric narrow gap forced convection boiling. Data were obtained to qualitatively identify the effects of gap size, pressure, flow rate and wall superheat on boiling regimes and the transition between various regimes. Some significant differences from unconfined forced convection boiling were found,and also, the flow patterns in narrow vertical annulus tubes have been studied quantitatively.

Einfluss von Größen und Fangzeit auf das Fettsäuremuster von Sardellen

Fatty acid composition of fish changes according to season, the catching area, the size, the sexuality, the physiological condition and the quantity of fat. The fatty acid composition was evaluated according to size and the catching season of anchovies Engraulis encrasicolus (L. 1758). It was observed that polyunsaturated fatty acids increasmed to highest level and saturated fatty acids decreased to lowest level in March. On the other hand, in April, it was observed that the saturated fatty acids increased to its highest level, monounsaturated fatty acids decreased to its lowest level.