Performance of Mortar and Chemical Grout Injection into Surrounding Soil When Slurry Pipe-jacking Method is Used

Small-diameter shallow tunnels are often being built by using the slurry pipe-jacking method. This system involves the pushing or thrusting of a drivage machine and concrete pipes into the ground. Chemical grout injection into the surrounding soil around the tunnel is carried out after the drivage and pushing processes are finished. The purpose of the chemical grout injection is to maintain permanent stability of the surrounding soil. However, the behavior of the chemical grouting material in the surrounding soil around the tunnel and the amount of optimum injection is not clearly understood. From these points of view, this paper discusses the performance of the chemical grouting material, when it is injected into the surrounding soil around the tunnel, by means of 2-D Eulerian–Lagrangian seepage analysis. Moreover, the effectiveness of the chemical grout injection was evaluated by using the non-linear finite element method. This investigation show when the range of the grouted zone is designed; it is necessary that the relationship between Young’s modulus of the soil/grouted zone and the confining stress be taken into consideration in order to establish effective, economical and safe chemical grout injection system. Understanding the performance of the seepage/dispersion behavior of the chemical grout and the characteristics of soil/ grouted zone is also important.     

Scaling model experiments on propagation of electromagnetic waves using salt solution to simulate the Earth's crust: Loma Prieta and Kobe earthquakes

Propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves from an earthquake focus in the conductive Earth has been investigated using 1/1,000,000 scaling models taking earth-ionosphere and ocean-Moho plane parallel-plate waveguides into account. Microwaves at a frequency, ω_m, a million times higher than that of seismic EM signal (SEMS), ω, were generated at the model focus. They are propagated in a salt solution modeling the earth's crust and reflected by ocean, fault planes, ionosphere and Moho plane all made by aluminum. Distribution of EM power was mapped by scanning a detector antenna over the model Earth's surface. The skin depth, δ, calculated by the exact skin depth equation, 1/δ=ω(μ/2)^1/2 [(1+(1/ωρ)²)^1/2 −1]^1/2 where dielectric constant, and permeability, μ are the same but resistivity, ρ, 10⁻⁶ times smaller than that of Earth, gave 10⁻⁶ times small skin depth validating the model scaling index. Images for evanescent and wave-ripple standing waves disturbed by normal, strike-slip and dip-slip conductive fault planes have been obtained using an aluminum plate. The co-circular contour map above the epicenter due to evanescence was pushed to the north east direction from the epicenter by the presence of ocean for the Loma Prieta earthquake, while to north direction for the Kobe earthquake. The intensity of EM ULF emissions for the Loma Prieta earthquake is discussed quantitatively.     

Structural modifications of CaGeO3-wollastonite under room temperature pressurization

 In-situ X-ray diffraction measurements of CaGeO₃-wollastonite at high pressure at room temperature have been performed using a diamond anvil cell with an X-ray source. A new structural modification of CaGeO₃-wollastonite is observed at about 6GPa and the characteristic reflections of the high pressure form are preserved on decompression to an ambient pressure. A rhodonite-like structure is proposed as a high pressure form from the crystal chemical consideration. The rhodonite-like phase is further transformed into a perovskite-form at about 15 GPa. The rhodonite-like-form of CaGeO₃ seems not to be a stable phase from the heating experiments under high pressures. The metastable transition path from the wollastonite to the perovskite polymorph through the rhodonite-like structure is kinetically favored under room temperature pressurization. No pressure-induced amorphization is observed during the transition into the perovskite-form, although the transition is accompanied by the coordination change of Ge atoms from fourfold to sixfold. Received: July 19, 1995 / Revised, accepted: August 1996     

Temperatures and Oxygen Isotopic Compositions of Hydrothermal Fluids for the Takatori Tungsten-copper Deposit, Japan

Abstract. Fluid inclusion and oxygen isotope studies are performed to obtain temperatures and oxygen isotopic compositions of hydrothermal fluids for the vein-type tungsten-copper deposit at Takatori in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Temperatures of the hydrothermal fluids are calculated from fluid inclusion data. The calculation incorporates the effects of the salinity, gas concentration, and fluid pressure. The fluid temperatures range from 370 to 460C. For these calculations, this study obtains a density equation for H₂O-NaCl-CO₂ solution at the vapor-liquid two-phase boundary. Then the present study combines the obtained equation with the equation of state by Bowers and Helgeson (1983).
The fluid temperatures determined in this study are applied to the calculation of oxygen isotopic compositions of the hydrothermal fluids. The calculation of the oxygen isotopic compositions is based on the oxygen isotope analyses of vein quartz. The oxygen isotopic compositions of vein quartz range from +13.5 to +14.4 % relative to SMOW. Then, the oxygen isotopic compositions of the hydrothermal fluids in equilibrium with the vein quartz are calculated to be from +9.7 to +10.5 %. These δ¹⁸O_fluid values agree with those of magmatic fluids derived from the ilmenite-series granitic rock, which is related to the mineralization. Keywords: Takatori tungsten-copper deposit, fluid inclusion, oxygen isotope, vein quartz, H₂O-NaCl-CO₂ solution, density