Age and height of last highest lake levels on theTibetan Plateau and their enveironmentalsignificance

The fluctuation of lake levels in Tibetan area may be well reflected by the landformevidences, especially the last highest lake levels. This, in a certain degree, is more suitable fordetermning the climatic humidity and aridity in macro scale compared with many other indicatorswhich are also sensitive to the sedimentary environmental change. According to the analyses of thelakes such as Tianshuihai Lake, Bangdag Co, Lungmu Co, Bangong Co, Serfing Co, Chabyer Caka,Qahan salt lake, Qinghai lake, the lake group in north-east Qiangtang and the lake group in southTibet. the authors thought that the lakes on the Tibetan Plateau generally appeared the high lakelevel during 40-25 ka BP. The plenty of water quantity may represent a special warm-humid stage inTibet area compared with the sub-warm-humid stage reflected by marine oxygen isotope records.Thus, there may existed different driving factors to climatic changes between the high latitUde areasand middle-low latitude mountains.

Study on Flow Field Around Vertical Breakwater Under Different Overtopping Conditions Based on Numerical Simulation

A numerical wave flume is constructed based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） equations with turbulence closure by a modified k - ε model to study the viscous interactiorrs of waves with vertical breakwaters for different overtopping cases. The goveruing equations, the turbulence model, boundary conditions, and solution method for the nu- merical wave flume are introduced briefly. The reliability of the numerical wave flume is examined by comparing the nu- merical results with the experimental measurements, and good agreements between them indicate the validity of the pre- sent model. The developments of mean velocity fields, the contours of vorticity, and the influences of wave nonlinearity on turbulence field as wave passing through vertical breakwaters are discussed in detail based on the numerical results. It is noted that the vortices at the rear of the lower submerged breakwater are close to the bottum and maytbe induce the scouring to the leeside toe of marine structure in practice. Over all, a conclusion can be obtained from this study that the turbulence in wave field around structure is induced directly by the development of boundary layer on the solid boundary, the nonlinear interaction of free surface with obstaele, and the plunging of overtopping waves.

An Experimental Study of Irregular Wave Forces on Multiple Quasi-ellipse Caissons

An experimental investigation of irregular wave forces on quasi-ellipse caisson structures is presented. Irregular waves were generated based on the Jonswap spectrum with two significant wave heights, and the spectrum peak periods range from 1.19 s to 1.81 s. Incident wave directions relative to the centre line of the multiple caissons are from 0＆#176; to 22.5＆#176;. The spacing between caissons ranges from 2 to 3 times that of the width of the caisson. The effects of these parameters on the wave forces of both the perforated and non-perforated caissons were compared and analyzed. It was found that the perforated caisson can reduce wave forces, especially in the transverse direction. Furthermore, the relative interval and incident wave direction have significant effects on the wave forces in the case of multiple caissons.

Short-term variations and influencing factors of suspended sediment concentrations at the Heisha Beach,Guangdong,China

Knowledge of sediment variation processes is essential to understand the evolution mechanism of beach morphology changes.Thus,a field measurement was conducted at the Heisha Beach,located on the west coast of the Zhujiang River(Pearl River)Estuary,to investigate the short-term variation in suspended sediment concentrations(SSCs)and the relationship between the SSC and turbulent kinetic energy,bottom shear stress(BSS),and relative wave height.Based on extreme event analysis results,extreme events have a greater influence on turbulent kinetic energy than SSC.Although a portion of the turbulent kinetic energy dissipates directly into the water column,it plays an important role in suspended sediment motion.Most of the time,the wave-current interaction is strong enough to drive sediment incipience and resuspension.When combined,the wave-current interaction and wave-induced BSSs have a greater influence on suspended sediment transport and SSC variation than current-induced BSS alone.The relative wave height also has a strong correlation with SSC,indicating that the combined effect of water depth and wave height significantly impacts SSC variation.Water depth is mainly controlled by the tide on the beaches;thus,the effects of tides and waves should be conjunctively considered when analyzing the factors influencing SSC.