Investigation of inner-basin variation: Impact of large reservoirs on water regimes of downstream water bodies

Large dams and reservoirs alter not only the natural flow regimes of streams and rivers but also their flooding cycles and flood magnitudes. Although the effect of dams and reservoirs has been reported for some vulnerable locations, the understanding of the inner-basin variation with respect to the effects remains limited. In this study, we analyse the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) built on the Changjiang mainstream (Yangtze River) to investigate the dam effect variations in the system of interconnected water bodies located downstream. We investigated the effect of flow alterations along the downstream river network using discharge time series at different gauging stations. The river–lake interactions (referring to the interactions between the Changjiang mainstream and its tributary lakes i.e. the Dongting and Poyang lakes) and their roles in modifying the TGD effect intensity were also investigated in the large-scale river–lake system. The results show that the water storage of the tributary lakes decreased after the activation of the TGD. Severe droughts occurred in the lakes, weakening their ability to recharge the Changjiang mainstream. As a consequence, the effect of the TGD on the Changjiang flow increase during the dry season diminished quickly downstream of the dam, whereas its impact on the flow decrease during the wet season gradually exacerbated along the mainstream, especially at sites located downstream of the lake outlets. Therefore, when assessing dam-induced hydrological changes, special attention should be paid to the changes in the storage of tributary lakes and the associated effects in the mainstream. This is of high importance for managing the water resource trade-offs between different water bodies in dam-affected riverine systems.     

Cyclical one-way continental rupture-drift in the Tethyan evolution: Subduction-driven plate tectonics

Numerous continents have rifted and drifted away from Gondwana to repeatedly open ocean basins over the past-500 millionyears.These Gondwana-derived continents drifted towards and collided with components of the Eurasian continent to successively close the preexisting oceans between the two.Plate tectonics satisfactorily describes the continental drift from Gondwana to Eurasia but does not define the geodynamic mechanism of continuously rifting to collisions of continents in the Tethy an Realm.After reappraisal of geological records of the rift,collision and subduction initiation from the surface and various geophysical observations from depth,we propose that Eurasia-directed subducting oceanic slabs would have driven Tethyan system in the Phanerozoic.The Eurasia-directed subduction would have dragged the passive Gondwana margin to rift and drift northwards,giving birth to new oceans since the Paleozoic.The closure of preexisting oceans between the Gondwana-derived continents and Eurasia led to continental collisions,which would have induced the initiation of oceanic subduction in the Tethyan Realm.Multiple episodic switches between collision-subduction-rift repeatedly led to the separation of continental fragments from Gondwana and dragged them to drift towards Eurasia.The final disappearance of Neo-Tethy s would have induced collision of the Gondwana-derived continents with the Eurasian continent,giving rise to the Cenozoic Alpine-Zagros-Himalayan collisional system.Therefore,the Eurasia-directed oceanic subduction would have acted as a 'one-way train' that successively transferred the ruptured Gondwana continental fragments in the south,into the terminal in the north.In this regard,the engine of this "Tethyan one-way train" is the negative buoyancy of subducting oceanic slabs.     

Micromechanical analysis of cyclic and asymptotic behaviors of a granular backfill

The paper examines the mechanics and physics of granular material responses at the macroscopic and microscopic levels during both monotonic and cyclic loadings. A numerical analysis referring to a long retaining wall is conducted using a two-dimensional discrete element model representing a granular system with a free top surface. On one of the lateral boundaries referring to the retaining wall, both active and passive loadings were applied monotonically as well as cyclically. First, the development of sheared zones and classic failure wedges resulting from active and passive monotonic displacements are discussed with respect to Rankine’s and Roscoe’s solution angles. Then, a series of loading cycles were performed using slow small-amplitude displacements at different stress states chosen before the occurrence of failure along the passive monotonic stress response curve. Particular interest is focused on the ultimate asymptotic cyclic response of the granular system, the occurrence of a high-mobility (convective) zone and a detailed macroscopic and microscopic analysis. Finally, major kinematical features that are displayed during cyclic loading from different starting stresses to eventually reach the same asymptotic state were elucidated through particle vortex-like flux formations, including contact rotations. The change in material stiffness was also investigated based on the evolution of strong and weak contact networks, together with the analysis of fabric anisotropy within the entire domain, including the high-mobility zone considered separately.

     

Revisiting the existence of an effective stress for wet granular soils with micromechanics

A possible effective stress variable for wet granular materials is numerically investigated based on an adapted discrete element method (DEM) model for an ideal three‐phase system. The DEM simulations consider granular materials made of nearly monodisperse spherical particles, in the pendular regime with the pore fluid mixture consisting of distinct water menisci bridging particle pairs. The contact force‐related stress contribution to the total stresses is isolated and tested as the effective stress candidate for dense or loose systems. It is first recalled that this contact stress tensor is indeed an adequate effective stress that describes stress limit states of wet samples with the same Mohr‐Coulomb criterion associated with their dry counterparts. As for constitutive relationships, it is demonstrated that the contact stress tensor used in conjunction with dry constitutive relations does describe the strains of wet samples during an initial strain regime but not beyond. Outside this so‐called quasi‐static strain regime, whose extent is much greater for dense than loose materials, dramatic changes in the contact network prevent macroscale contact stress‐strain relationships to apply in the same manner to dry and unsaturated conditions. The presented numerical results also reveal unexpected constitutive bifurcations for the loose material, related to stick‐slip macrobehavior.     

Direct constraint on cosmic neutrino mass using observational Hubble parameter data

In order to explore the properties of cosmic neutrinos, i.e. sum of the neutrino mass(∑m_ν) and the effective number of neutrino species(N_(eff)), which affects the Hubble expansion rate H(z)and the power of observational Hubble parameter data(OHD) in constraining cosmological parameters under the ΛCDM model, we utilize OHD to constrain the properties of cosmic neutrinos and apply an accurate H(z) function with mνand Neff. First, we simulate new OHD beyond the existing 43 OHD. According to the predictions of measurements of H_0(the current H(z) value), baryon acoustic oscillations(BAO) peaks, Sandage-Loeb(SL) test and cosmic microwave background(CMB), we assume observational accuracy up to 2% and redshift 0 z ≤5. With simulated H(z) data obtained from the fiducial model, we constrain the parameters including mνand Neff. When all parameters are set free, mν 0.196 eV(95%) and N_(eff)= 2.984 ± 0.826(68%) are obtained, and when fixing Neff as the standard baseline 3.046, we attain ∑m_ν 0.240 eV(95%). These constrained results are much tighter than the ones obtained by the current OHD, which makes the prospect of OHD in constraining cosmological parameters more promising as its accuracy and quantity grow.     

Prediction of Flyrock in Mine Blasting: A New Computational Intelligence Approach

Natural Resources Research - Blasting is the predominant rock fragmentation technique in civil constructions, underground and surface mines. Flyrock is the unwanted throw of rock fragments during...     

Effects of Anthropogenic Disturbance on Sediment Organic Carbon Mineralization Under Different Water Conditions in Coastal Wetland of a Subtropical Estuary

The changes in soil organic carbon(C) mineralization as affected by anthropogenic disturbance directly determine the role of soils as C source or sink in the global C budget. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of anthropogenic disturbance(aquaculture pond, pollutant discharge and agricultural activity) on soil organic C mineralization under different water conditions in the Minjiang River estuary wetland, Southeast China. The results showed that the organic C mineralization in the wetland soils was significantly affected by human disturbance and water conditions(P 0.001), and the interaction between human disturbance activities and water conditions was also significant(P 0.01). The C mineralization rate and the cumulative mineralized carbon dioxide-carbon(CO_2-C)(at the 49th day) ranked from highest to lowest as follows: Phragmites australis wetland soil aquaculture pond sediment soil near the discharge outlet rice paddy soil. This indicated that human disturbance inhibited the mineralization of C in soils of the Minjiang River estuary wetland, and the inhibition increased with the intensity of human disturbance. The data for cumulative mineralized CO_2-C showed a good fit(R~2 0.91) to the first-order kinetic model C_t = C_0(1 – exp(–kt)). The kinetic parameters C_0, k and C_0 k were significantly affected by human disturbance and water conditions. In addition, the total amount of mineralized C(in 49 d) was positively related to C_0, C_0 k and electrical conductivity of soils. These findings indicated that anthropogenic disturbance suppressed the organic C mineralization potential in subtropical coastal wetland soils, and changes of water pattern as affected by human activities in the future would have a strong influence on C cycling in the subtropical estuarine wetlands.     

渤海湾盆地歧口凹陷地层压力结构特征

深化含油气沉积盆地的压力结构研究，厘清异常压力的空间展布，对划分含油气系统、评价有利输导体系与明确勘探甜点区带具有重要的理论和实践意义。为深化渤海湾盆地富油凹陷的油气二次勘探，本文以歧口凹陷为研究对象，对其压力结构进行重点刻画。在实测地层压力的校正下，综合单井、连井和二维地震地层压力结构分析，厘清了歧口凹陷的压力结构特征，识别出4类纵向压力结构：①单超压带结构；②双超压带结构；③多超压带结构；④静水压力结构。纵向上，歧口地区存在3类纵向压力系统样式——单超压系统、双超压系统、静水常压系统。双超压系统是歧口凹陷的主要压力系统样式，广泛发育于主凹和各大次凹；从凹陷中心向盆地边缘，双超压系统逐渐向单超压系统、静水常压系统过渡。单超压系统主要分布于盆地边缘的斜坡和潜山区，如歧北高斜坡、羊三木-扣村潜山等。静水常压系统则主要分布在离深凹区更远的沈青庄潜山和埕北斜坡区域。上部超压系统和下部超压系统的顶板分别位于东营组和沙三段内部，侧向上受盆地边缘和深大断裂控制。上部超压系统的形成主要受欠压实作用控制，以歧口主凹为中心呈环带分布；而下部超压系统的形成主要受生烃作用控制，以主凹和几大次凹为中心分布。未来，下部超压系统中保存的天然气将成为歧口地区超深层天然气勘探的重点对象。     

信阳地震台水管倾斜仪加速E倾变化分析

信阳地震台水管倾斜仪EW分量2016年5月出现加速E倾变化，为确定异常性质及产生原因，从观测洞室环境、仪器观测系统、气象数据、环境干扰等进行调查，并采用有限元法和不规则荷载模型，计算台站附近的信阳林业学校拆迁荷载变化对水管倾斜仪观测的影响，最终判定本次异常为林校拆迁所致。     

Preparation of pure gum raw materials-low brown algae application

Octenylsuccinate starch ester, also called pure gum, is non-toxic and odourless modified starch which is widely used in many food fields. This study synthesized pure gum in a reaction kettle using the low molecular weight trehalose and octenyl succinic acid. An orthogonal test was carried out to find how the reaction factors affect the synthetization of octenylsuccinic acid polysaccharide ester and to optimize the reaction at single factor level. The optimal products were obtained using 1:2 of octenylsuccinic acid:alginic acid, catalysed by 0.1% p-toluenesulfonic acid catalyst for 1.5 h at 200℃ under vacuum conditions.The gained product contains up to 46% of seaweed gel monoesters. The degree of esterification of the polysaccharide is controlled by the use of the small-molecule trehalose. Compared with the traditional methods, our process can reduce raw material cost and improve emulsification stability of pure gum. These all can significantly improve the market competitiveness of pure gum products.