Post-erosion mechanical responses of internally unstable gap-graded soil under drained torsional simple shear and triaxial compression

Internal erosion is a major threat to hydraulic earth structures, such as river levees and dams. This paper focuses on suffusion and suffosion phenomena which are caused by the movement of fine particles in the granular skeleton due to seepage flow. The present study investigates the impact of internal erosion on the dynamic response under cyclic torsional shear and monotonic responses under triaxial compression and torsional simple shear. A series of experiments, using a gap-graded silica mixture with a fines content of 20%, is performed under loose, medium, and dense conditions using a novel erosion hollow cylindrical torsional shear apparatus. The erosion test results indicate that the critical hydraulic gradient and the rate of erosion are density-dependent, where a transition from suffosion to suffusion is observed as the seepage continues. Regardless of the sample density, variations in the radial strain and particle size distribution, along the specimen height after erosion, are no longer uniform. Furthermore, the dynamic shearing results show that the small-strain shear modulus increases, but the initial damping ratio decreases after internal erosion, probably due to the removal of free fines. In addition, the elastic threshold strain and reference shear strain values are found to be higher for the eroded and non-eroded specimens, respectively. Finally, based on drained monotonic loading, the post-erosion peak stress ratio increases remarkably under triaxial compression, while that under torsional simple shear depends on the relative density where the direction of loading is normal to the direction of seepage. These observations indicate that the horizontal bedding plane becomes weaker, while the vertical one becomes stronger after downward erosion.     

Liquefaction behavior of fiber-reinforced calcareous sands in unidirectional and multidirectional simple shear tests

A study on the liquefaction resistance of calcareous sands reinforced with polypropylene fibers was reported. Stress-controlled cyclic simple shear tests were conducted on specimens prepared at a relative density of 50%, with and without fiber reinforcements. The liquefaction behavior was investigated by considering the effects of fiber contents ranging from 0% to 1%, fiber lengths varying from 3 mm to 12 mm and loading patterns. The results indicated that increasing fiber content and fiber length resulted in a decrease in the deformation, a reduction in pore pressure accumulation rate, and improved the liquefaction resistance of calcareous sands. Additionally, the risk of soil liquefaction could be significantly reduced when the fiber content was greater than 0.8%. The multidirectional loading had a considerable effect in reducing the liquefaction resistance compared to unidirectional loading. Further, the stiffness degradation of calcareous sands decreased with increasing fiber content and fiber length. The pore pressure generated in the cyclic tests was analyzed and was found to be affected by fiber content. A pore pressure prediction model was proposed to obtain the pore pressure characteristics of fiber-reinforced calcareous sands under various fiber content conditions.     

考虑围岩稳定性评价的引水隧洞施工过程仿真系统

根据施工过程中的围岩稳定情况确定出合理的施工进尺并实时可视化评价结构安全状况具有重要的工程意义。首先利用BIM建模软件建立三维基础模型,通过对建模软件进行二次开发并结合系统仿真原理得到引水隧洞施工进度;其次将几何模型转换为数值计算模型并建立进度数据库与引水隧洞数值模型之间的映射关系,通过有限元分析围压系统的安全状况,根据不同进尺下的进度计算及围岩稳定分析结果,合理选择施工进尺;最后基于Python+VB.net混合编程技术编制了引水隧洞施工进度与围岩稳定安全仿真系统。工程应用表明,该系统将隧洞施工进度、支护体系与围岩稳定性进行结合,可为合理制定施工计划及施工现场控制提供可视化技术及数据支持。     

多因素耦合作用下地下厂房施工进度风险分析及其应用

为深入分析地下厂房施工进度风险因素之间的耦合作用及耦合效应,采用WBS-RBS法识别了影响施工进度的人、物、环境、管理4类风险因素,基于系统动力学方法揭示了同质单因素和异质双-多因素耦合关系,在此基础上建立了同质单因素耦合度模型和异质双-多因素N-K模型,运用蒙特卡罗法模拟了各风险因素对进度影响的概率分布,分析耦合强度。工程实例应用表明,各类风险子系统中存在较大的同质单因素耦合风险,应加强针对性预防和控制;异质双-多因素耦合中,有管理因素参与耦合的风险较大,实际施工中应尽可能减少多因素参与耦合。     

Simple Sequence Repeat Markers in Genetic Divergence and Marker-Assisted Selection of Rice Cultivars: A Review

Sequencing of rice genome has facilitated the understanding of rice evolution and has been utilized extensively for mining of DNA markers to facilitate marker-assisted breeding. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers that are tandemly repeated nucleotide sequence motifs flanked by unique sequences are presently the maker of choice in rice improvement due to their abundance, co-dominant inheritance, high levels of allelic diversity, and simple reproducible assay. The current level of genome coverage by SSR markers in rice is sufficient to employ them for genotype identification and marker-assisted selection in breeding for mapping of genes and quantitative trait loci analysis. This review provides comprehensive information on the mapping and applications of SSR markers in investigation of rice cultivars to study their genetic divergence and marker-assisted selection of important agronomic traits.     

A two stage heuristic algorithm for the integrated aircraft and crew schedule recovery problems

Airline disruptions incurred huge cost for airlines and serious inconvenience for travelers. In this paper, we study the integrated aircraft and crew schedule recovery problem. A two stage heuristic algorithm for the integrated recovery problem is proposed. In the first stage, the integrated aircraft recovery and flight-rescheduling model with partial crew consideration is built. This model is based on the traditional multi-commodity network model for the aircraft schedule recovery problem. The objective of this model also includes minimization of the original crew connection disruption. In the second stage, the integrated crew schedule recovery and flight re-scheduling model with partial aircraft consideration is built. We proposed a new multi-commodity model for the crew schedule recovery. The main advantage of such model is that it is much more efficient to integrate the flight-scheduling and aircraft consideration. New constraints are incorporated to guarantee that the aircraft connections generated in the stage 1 are still feasible. Two stages are run iteratively until no improvement can be achieved. Experimental results show that our method can provide better recovery solutions compared with the benchmark algorithms.     

配网工程建设时间控制

时间控制是运用科学的方法、工具,并综合运用现有资源,在规定时间内取得预期效果的一种控制手段。本文从工程时间管理的概念出发,研究了如何运用时间管理方法实现工程施工工期的管理,讨论了时间管理在工程建设中的重要性,为企业配网工程建设时间控制管理提供参考。     

A passivity‐based simple adaptive synergetic control for a class of nonlinear systems

For a class of nonlinear systems with the representation {A(x), B(x), C} and where the system parameters and dynamics are unknown, a simple adaptive synergetic controller ensuring the asymptotic convergence of the system to a desired manifold is proposed based on the technique of simple adaptive control (SAC). It is well known that the design of the synergetic control (SC) law requires a thorough knowledge of the system parameters and dynamics. Such problem obstructs the synthesis of the SC law and the designer is prompted to pass through the estimation methods, which, in turn, poses a problem of increasing the computation time of the control algorithm. To cope with this problem, a solution is proposed by modifying the original SC law to develop an SAC‐like adaptive SC law without the need of prior knowledge of the system. The stability of the proposed adaptive controller is formally proven via the Lyapunov approach. Experimental application to a quadrotor system is given to validate the theoretical results.     

Transient parametric pilot study on thermosyphon heat transport device: A computational fluid dynamics hypothesis and experimental exploration

This study aims to examine the practicality of a novel passive heat transport system “thermosyphon heat transport device” (THTD). It is a fluid-filled unit, with both source and sink amalgamated within it. A vertical tube-in-tube design has been incorporated, consisting of heat source, adiabatic height, and sink. To showcase the performance, a transient numerical analysis is performed using ANSYS Fluent, which is compared with the simple closed thermosiphon (SCT) for heat transport capability (1 kW) and different adiabatic heights (0.25, 1, and 1.5 m). Also, the influence of axial conduction is examined. The proposed Therminol VP1-based THTD has better heat transport capability over SCT due to a uniform flow pattern. Although the time response diminishes with adiabatic height, the novelty is justified as the heat gained by THTD (adiabatic height: 1.5 m) is 1.5 times more than SCT. Furthermore, the THTD performance is experimentally analyzed by varying the coolant flow rate (0.01, 0.02, and 0.03 kg/s), heat load (100−600 W), and transport distance (0.25 and 0.75 m), which yielded 80%−90% energy efficiency. As the THTD is crucial for a conceptual solar indoor cooker, the response under transient heating/cooling conditions is also investigated, which depicted 300 s for transient heating and 10−50 s for transient cooling.