Geotextile encased columns (GEC) used as pressure-relief system. Instrumented bridge abutment case study on soft soil

Geosynthetic Encased Sand Columns (GEC) have been frequently adopted in geo-engineering practice to improve bearing capacity, reduce settlements and accelerate consolidation in saturated soft cohesive ground (e.g. Alexiew et al, 2005; Alexiew et al., 2012; Raithel et al, 2005). The present paper extends these early views by introducing the use of columns to reduce the magnitude of horizontal earth pressures acting on structures adjacent to compaction fills. The monitoring program of a full-scale bridge abutment on soft soil supported by GECs and geogrid reinforced system is described, where field performance is monitored with pressure cells, electrical piezometers, inclinometers and settlement plates. Analytical and numerical analyses have been performed to help on interpreting experimental measurements. The collected database is interpreted to demonstrate that GEC can reduce by up to 50% the horizontal earth pressure over bridge border foundation piles when compared to values predicted for unreinforced ground and demonstrate that the work conformed to acceptable limits of behavior.     

Zum Tragverhalten der selbstregulierenden interaktiven Membrangründung

On the load bearing behavior of the self‐regulating interactive membrane foundation system The paper reports on a new foundation system, the self‐regulating membrane foundation, for embankments on deep soft soil deposits, such as stockpiles or infrastructure embankments. The load bearing behavior of the system was analyzed by means of centrifuge model tests and comprehensive numerical simulations, such as global sensitivity analyses and parametric studies. The results of those analyses and the derived design approach are presented in the paper. The paper concludes with a validation of the design approach, by comparison with results of the numerical simulation.     

FLOW OF LIQUOR THROUGH WOOD CHIPS IN A MODEL DIGESTER

Electrical resistance tomography was used to evaluate liquid flow trough a 40 L model digester filled with wood chips. Tests were made with cooked and uncooked chips, both uncompressed and at two levels of chip compression (giving external liquid void fractions of 0.53, 0.43, and 0.33). The chips were stationary in all tests. Flow situations (symmetrical and asymmetrical liquid upflow, symmetrical liquid downflow) were studied with liquor recirculated through the downcomer-screen circulation loop. The creation of distinct liquor flow zones both above and below the screen section depended on the ratio of liquor flow in the downcomer-screen circuit to the axial liquor flow (either upflow or downflow) and did not depend on the level of chip compaction attained. Asymmetrical flows created by closing one-half of the screen set established nonuniform zones within the model digester. The significance of these findings for operating digesters is discussed.     

FLOW OF LIQUOR THROUGH WOOD CHIPS IN A MODEL DIGESTER

Electrical resistance tomography was used to evaluate liquid flow trough a 40 L model digester filled with wood chips. Tests were made with cooked and uncooked chips, both uncompressed and at two levels of chip compression (giving external liquid void fractions of 0.53, 0.43, and 0.33). The chips were stationary in all tests. Flow situations (symmetrical and asymmetrical liquid upflow, symmetrical liquid downflow) were studied with liquor recirculated through the downcomer-screen circulation loop. The creation of distinct liquor flow zones both above and below the screen section depended on the ratio of liquor flow in the downcomer-screen circuit to the axial liquor flow (either upflow or downflow) and did not depend on the level of chip compaction attained. Asymmetrical flows created by closing one-half of the screen set established nonuniform zones within the model digester. The significance of these findings for operating digesters is discussed.     

Thixotropy of Systems with Shear Thinning and Plastic Flow Behavior

The definition of the thixotropy is a decrease in viscosity with time in shear and a subsequent recovery of viscosity after the shear deformation is removed.We ...     

Influence of geometric and thermophysical properties of reaction layer on sulphur dioxide oxidation in transient conditions

The sulphur dioxide to sulphur trioxide oxidation process in a fixed bed catalytic reactor is simulated in the case of cyclic change in the direction of the reaction mixture feed. It is shown that, for transient condition, the amount of catalyst in the reactor may be substantially reduced by its partial substitution with inert material of suitable form, dimensions and thermophysical properties, at the end of the layer. This makes the direct regenerative heat transfer process in these zones controllable, producing the same conversion and overall height of the layer. The results are significant for sulphuric acid production from gases poor in sulphur dioxide.     

Distributive mereotopology: extended distributive contact lattices

The notion of contact algebra is one of the main tools in the region based theory of space. It is an extension of Boolean algebra with an additional relation C called contact. The elements of the Boolean algebra are considered as formal representations of spatial regions as analogues of physical bodies and Boolean operations are considered as operations for constructing new regions from given ones and also to define some mereological relations between regions as part-of, overlap and underlap. The contact relation is one of the basic mereotopological relations between regions expressing some topological nature. It is used also to define some other important mereotopological relations like non-tangential inclusion, dual contact, external contact and others. Most of these definitions are given by means of the operation of Boolean complementation. There are, however, some problems related to the motivation of the operation of Boolean complementation. In order to avoid these problems we propose a generalization of the notion of contact algebra by dropping the operation of complement and replacing the Boolean part of the definition by that of a distributive lattice. First steps in this direction were made in (Düntsch et al. Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 4136, 135–147, 2006, Düntsch et al. J. Log. Algebraic Program. 76, 18–34, 2008) presenting the notion of distributive contact lattice based on the contact relation as the only mereotopological relation. In this paper we consider as non-definable primitives the relations of contact, nontangential inclusion and dual contact, extending considerably the language of distributive contact lattices. Part I of the paper is devoted to a suitable axiomatization of the new language called extended distributive contact lattice (EDC-lattice) by means of universal first-order axioms true in all contact algebras. EDC-lattices may be considered also as an algebraic tool for a certain subarea of mereotopology, called in this paper distributive mereotopology. The main result of Part I of the paper is a representation theorem, stating that each EDC-lattice can be isomorphically embedded into a contact algebra, showing in this way that the presented axiomatization preserves the meaning of mereotopological relations without considering Boolean complementation. Part II of the paper is devoted to topological representation theory of EDC-lattices, transferring into the distributive case important results from the topological representation theory of contact algebras. It is shown that under minor additional assumptions on distributive lattices as extensionality of the definable relations of overlap or underlap one can preserve the good topological interpretations of regions as regular closed or regular open sets in topological space.     

Numerical study of the atmospheric composition in Bulgaria

The present work aims at studying the local to regional atmospheric pollution transport and transformation processes over Bulgaria and at tracking and characterizing the main pathways and processes that lead to atmospheric composition formation in the region.The US EPA Models-3 system is chosen as a modeling tool. As the NCEP Global Analysis Data with 1 degree resolution is used as meteorological background, the MM5 and CMAQ nesting capabilities are applied for downscaling the simulations to a 9 km resolution over Balkans and 3 km over Bulgaria. The TNO emission inventory is used as emission input. Special pre-processing procedures are created for introducing temporal profiles and speciation of the emissions.The study is based on a large number of numerical simulations carried out day by day for the years 2000–2007 and four emission scenarios—with all the emissions and with biogenic emissions, emissions from energetics and road transport excluded. Results from the numerical simulations concerning the main features of the atmospheric composition in Bulgaria and the contribution of the different emission categories are demonstrated in the paper. Some results from the CMAQ “Integrated Process Rate Analysis” are also given.