Numerical three-dimensional modeling of earthen dam piping failure

A physically-based numerical three-dimensional earthen dam piping failure model is developed for homogeneous and zoned soil dams.This model is an erosion model,coupled with force/moment equilibrium analyses.Orifice flow and two-dimensional(2D)shallow water equations(SWE)are solved to simulate dam break flows at different breaching stages.Erosion rates of different soils with different construction compaction efforts are calculated using corresponding erosion formulae.The dam's real shape,soil properties,and surrounding area are programmed.Large outer 2D-SWE grids are used to control upstream and downstream hydraulic conditions and control the boundary conditions of orifice flow,and inner 2D-SWE flow is used to scour soil and perform force/moment equilibrium analyses.This model is validated using the European Commission IMPACT(Investigation of Extreme Flood Processes and Uncertainty)Test#5 in Norway,Teton Dam failure in Idaho,USA,and Quail Creek Dike failure in Utah,USA.All calculated peak outflows are within 10%errors of observed values.Simulation results show that,for a V-shaped dam like Teton Dam,a piping breach location at the abutment tends to result in a smaller peak breach outflow than the piping breach location at the dam's center;and if Teton Dam had broken from its center for internal erosion,a peak outflow of 117851 m'/s,which is 81%larger than the peak outflow of 65120 m3/s released from its right abutment,would have been released from Teton Dam.A lower piping inlet elevation tends to cause a faster/earlier piping breach than a higher piping inlet elevation.

Stochastic seismic slope stability assessment using polynomial chaos expansions combined with relevance vector machine

This paper presents probabilistic assessment of seismically-induced slope displacements considering uncertainties of seismic ground motions and soil properties.A stochastic ground motion model representing both the temporal and spectral non-stationarity of earthquake shakings and a three-dimensional rotational failure mechanism are integrated to assess Newmark-type slope displacements.A new probabilistic approach that incorporates machine learning in metamodeling technique is proposed,by combining relevance vector machine with polynomial chaos expansions(RVM-PCE).Compared with other PCE methods,the proposed RVM-PCE is shown to be more effective in estimating failure probabilities.The sensitivity and relative influence of each random input parameter to the slope displacements are discussed.Finally,the fragility curves for slope displacements are established for sitespecific soil conditions and earthquake hazard levels.The results indicate that the slope displacement is more sensitive to the intensities and strong shaking durations of seismic ground motions than the frequency contents,and a critical Arias intensity that leads to the maximum annual failure probabilities can be identified by the proposed approach.

Mixed d/f Complexes Zn(H2L)Ln(NO3)3(Ln=Sm,Tb and Dy)：Crystal Structure,Fluorescence and Thermal Stability

A series of isostructural d/f molecular compounds Zn（H2L）Ln（NO3）3·CH3OH（Ln = Dy（1）, Tb（2） and Sm（3）） were synthesized by the introduction of a designed multifunctional ligand N,N？,N？？,N？？？-tetra（2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-5-methylbenzyl）-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecan（H4L = C（44）H（60）N4O8）. In the isostructural molecules, each crystallographically independent Zn2＋ and Ln3＋ centers are connected by two phenolic oxygen atoms. For the six-coordinate Zn-（2＋） ion, the coordination geometry can be viewed as a regular bicapped square pyramid. While for the ten-coordinate Ln-（3＋） ion, if each O,O？-chelated nitrate ligand is seen as a single coordination site, the coordination geometry can be viewed as a distorted pentagonal bipyramid. The fluorescent spectra show that compounds 2 and 3 exhibited characteristic sharp emissions of Tb-（3＋） and Sm-（3＋）, respectively, while compound 1 was found to be a single-component white-light-emitting complex in the solid state. Thermal stabilities of the three compounds were investigated by using thermal gravimetric analysis. In addition, the thermal decomposition of compound 1 was confirmed by temperature-dependent powder X-ray diffraction technique.

Three-dimensional critical slip surface locating and slope stability assessment for lava lobe of Unzen volcano

Even Unzen volcano has been declared to be in a state of relative dormancy,the latest formed lava lobe No.11 now represents a potential slope failure mass based on the latest research.This paper concentrates on the stability of the lava lobe No.11 and its possible critical sliding mass.It proposes geographic information systems (GIS) based three-dimensional (3D) slope stability analysis models.It uses a 3D locating approach to identify the 3D critical slip surface and to analyze the 3D stability of the lava lobe No.11.At the same time,the new 3D approach shows the effectiveness in selecting the range of the Monte Carlo random variables and locating the critical slip surface in different parts of the lava lobe No.11.The results are very valuable for judging the stability of the lava lobe and assigning the monitoring equipments.

Site 0ccupancy of Alloying Elements and Their Effects on the D0_3 Phase Stability in Fe_3Al

The effects of ternary solutes Ti, Co, V, Cr, Ta, W and Mo on the D03 phase 5tability of Fe3Alintermetallics are investigated by tight-binding linear Muffin-tin orbitaI method. The predictedsite preference5 of these elements in Fe3AI are in agreement with the experimental observations.The calculated Iocal magnetic moment of Fe3AI is identical to the experimentaI. ln addition, itis found that the D03 phase stability of Fe3AI doped with Ti, V, Co and Cr depends on 'energygap- of energy band near Fermi level. while the D03 phase stability of Fe3AI doped with Ta, Wand Mo may be affected by Madelung energy.

Robust D stabilization of singular systems with polytopic uncertainties

The robust D stabilization problem is considered for singular systems with polytopic uncertainties in this paper.Both the derivative matrix E and the state matrix A are with uncertainties,which were not considered before.First,with the introduction of some free matrices,a necessary and sufficient condition for the singular system to be D stable is proposed,based on which,the robust D stable problem is solved,and a sufficient condition for the closed system to be robust D stabilizable is obtained.The desired state feedback controller is given in an explicit expression.Numerical examples show the efficiency of the proposed approach.

The identification and criteria of short-term seismicity gap before a great earthquake

Based on the background of the medium term seismic gap, and the creep rate slow down after accelerated strain release, by using a method of gradually reducing the step length and the window length of scanning, the characteristics and criteria of a short term seismic gap have been studied from multi dimension space research. A new method for identifying a short term gap from 3 D axial stability collation has been advanced. Through the study of 26 earthquake examples in north and south west region of China, we found that a short term seismicity gap appeared in 9～16 months before a strong earthquake, this type of gap is different from the seismogenic gap, and will lasted 4～7 months, end at the time of 3～8 months before the mainshock . The ending is marked by the appearance of a significant earthquake in or near the gap (Sun and Cao, 1995) and of small earthquake in the gap.

Improved 2-D Stability Margin Test for 2-D Discrete Systems

An improved 2 D stability margin test and its algorithm for 2 D discrete systems are proposed.The stability margin test procedure can be slmplified by using the inner term polynomials of B(z 1,z 2) to construct a margin test table.Different from other well known 2 D stability margin test algorithms,the new approach can directly obtain the stability margin.