Spectra of seismic force reduction factors of MDOF systems normalized by two characteristic periods

Seismic force reduction factor(SFRF) spectra of shear-type multi-degree-of-freedom(MDOF) structures are investigated. The modified Clough model, capable of considering the strength-degradation/hardening and stiffnessdegradation, is adopted. The SFRF mean spectra using 102 earthquake records on a typical site soil type(type C) are constructed with the period abscissa being divided into three period ranges to maintain the peak features at the two sitespecific characteristic periods. Based on a large number of results, it is found that the peak value of SFRF spectra may also exist for MDOF, induced by large high-mode contributions to elastic base shear, besides the mentioned two peak values. The variations of the stiffness ratio λk and the strength ratio λF of the top to bottom story are both considered. It is found that the SFRFs for λF ≤λk are smaller than those for λF > λk. A SFRF modification factor for MDOF systems is proposed with respect to SDOF. It is found that this factor is significantly affected by the story number and ductility. With a specific λF(= λk0.75), SFRF mean spectra are constructed and simple solutions are presented for MDOF systems. For frames satisfying the strong column/weak beam requirement, an approximate treatment in the MDOF shear-beam model is to assign a post-limit stiffness 15%-35% of the initial stiffness to the hysteretic curve. SFRF spectra for MDOF systems with 0.2 and 0.3 times the post-limit stiffness are remarkably larger than those without post-limit stiffness. Thus, the findings that frames with beam hinges have smaller ductility demand are explained through the large post-limit stiffness.

On the long-term joint distribution of characteristic wave height and period and its application

By analysing the scatter diagrams of characteristic the wave height H and the period T on the basis of instrumental data from various ocean wave stations, we found that the conditional expectation and standard deviation of wave period for a given wave height can be better predicted by using the equations of normal linear regression rather than by those based on the log- normal law. The latter was implied in Ochi' s bivariate log-normal model(Ochi. 1978) for the long-term joint distribution of H and T. With the expectation and standard deviation predicted by the normal linear regression equations and applying proper types of distribution, we have obtained the conditional distribution of T for given H. Then combining this conditional P(T / H) with long-term marginal distribution of the wave height P(H) we establish a new parameterized model for the long-term joint distribution P(H,T). As an example of the application of the new model we give a method for estimating wave period associated with an extreme wave height.

Characteristics of near-fault ground motion containing velocity pulses

There are many reports about the research on near-fault velocity pulses, which focus on the generation of velocity pulse and simplify the velocity pulse so as to be used in the seismic design of structure, However few researches have put emphasis on the characteristics of near-fault ground motions containing velocity pulses, especially the characteristics relevant with the design response spectrum prescribed by the code. Through collection of a large number of near-fault records containing velocity pulses, the response spectra and the characteristic periods of records containing no pulses are compared with those of records containing pulses. Response spectra of near-fault records are compared with standard spectra given by code; furthermore, the response spectra and the characteristic periods of each earthquake are compared with that given by code. The result shows that at long periods （longer than 1.5 s）, the response spectrum of pulse-containing records is bigger than the response spectrum of no-pulse-containing records; when the characteristic period of near-fault records is calculated, the method that does not fix frequency is more reasonable because the T1 and T2 have a lagging tendency; regardless of the site Ⅰ and site Ⅱ, the characteristic period of pulse-containing records is over twice bigger than the characteristic period given by the code,

Periodic Error Compensation for Quartz MEMS Gyroscope Drift of INS

In order to improve the navigation accuracy of an inertial navigation system （INS）, composed of quartz gyroscopes, the existing real-time compensation methods for periodic errors in quartz gyroscope drift and the periodic error term relationship between sampled original data and smoothed data are reviewed. On the base of the results, a new compensation method called using former period characteristics to compensate latter smoothness data （UFCL for short） method is proposed considering the INS working characteristics. This new method uses the original data without smoothing to work out an error conversion formula at the INS initial alignment time and then compensate the smoothed data errors by way of the formula at the navigation time. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that this method is able to cut down on computational time and raise the accuracy which makes it a better real-time compensation approach for periodic error terms of quartz micro electronic mechanical system （MEMS） gyroscope＇s zero drift.

Analysis of Wood Anatomy Characteristics by Fast Fourier Transfer Image Analysis

Fast Fourier Transfer Image Processing was widely applied to the analysis of wood anatomy structure in re-cent years. The cells in the wood transverse section have obviously periodicity and regularity. FFT power spectral patternscan extract the periodic characteristics so that they can be compared. identified and classified quaytitatively. This paperSummarizes the application of FFT image analysis in wood science and the general way to study wood anatomy by FFT.

New national seismic zoning map of China

A new set of seismic zoning maps were published in August 1, 2001. It includes two maps, one is the seismic zon-ing map of peak acceleration, and the other is the zoning map of the characteristic period of the response spectrum. The exceeding probability of the map is 10% within 50 years. The scale of the map is 1:4 000 000. These maps serve as the national standard. The background of this project, technical approach and key scientific measures, the basic feature and the application of the maps are introduced in this paper.

Site effect on strong-motion records of the 2011 Mw9.0 Tohoku earthquake in Japan

Strong-motion site effect was checked for four sites at comparable epicentral distances from the March 11, 2011 Mw9.0 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. The result showed that site condition had a significant impact on peak acceleration, and on maximal amplitude and characteristic period of its response spectrum. Shorter-period seismic waves were amplified mainly in shallower soils, while longer-period waves in deeper soft rocks and soils, where the characteristic periods of response spectra were longer than those on ground surface.

Effect of Shear Wave Velocity on the Ground Motion Parameters of Site Surface

Based on the data from typical sites in the Jianghuai region,many kinds of soil layer seismic response are modeled by increasing and decreasing the measured values of shear velocity to a certain scale. The seismic response of soil layer sites are calculated using the one-dimensional equivalent linear method in the frequency domain by choosing the Taft,Kobe and El-centro records as the ground motion input. The results show that the impact of shear velocity variability on the surface ground motion is in relation to the soil layer structure and ground motion input parameters such as amplitude and spectral characteristic. With the increase of shear velocity,the PGA( peak ground acceleration)on the surface of site will increase,however,the characteristic period of the acceleration response spectra is decreasing.

Static and dynamic inelastic P-Δ effect for seismic design

Seismic influence of P-Δ effect is the subject of this study.First,it is pointed out that the elastic static amplification factor shall be isolated in formulating the dynamic inelastic second order effect.An amplification factor for the static inelastic P-Δ effect is derived.Seismic force reduction factors(SFRF)for given ductility and stability coefficients are computed for one-story,one-span frames.The P-Δ amplification factors for seismic base shears are obtained by dividing SFRFs with and without P-Δ effect.Both P-Δ amplification factors and SFRFs are presented separately with two kinds of period abscissas.The P-Δ amplification factors are dependent on periods with the maximum occurring at about 0.75 s for site type C and approach to the static inelastic counterpart at long periods.Post-yield stiffness cannot fully counteract the adverse impact of the P-Δ effect.Formulas for seismic P-Δ amplification factors are proposed and compared to results of others.Collapse capacity spectra(CCS)are reviewed and their application in codes discussed.Available CCSs are compared with SFRFs with finite ductility computed for two ensembles of seismic records.A comparison reveals that the SFRFs are affected by seismic records,and available CCSs do not always provide upper limits for the SFRFs when stability coefficients are greater than 0.1 for frame models.

Multi-Time Scale Analysis of Runoff at the Yangtze Estuary Based on the Morlet Wavelet Transform Method

Runoff series of the Yangtze River presents an intricate variation tendency under the reinforced influence of human activities.The Morlet Wavelet Transform method has been applied to analyze the annual runoff data from 1950 to 2011 at the Yangtze River Estuary.It can clearly reveal the multi-time scales structure,break point,change and distribution of periodic variation in the different time scales of the runoff series.The main conclusions are that:1) Repeated periodic oscillations accompanied by an extremely large fluctuation are presented in the runoff series with an obvious difference between wet and dry years,and the major periods of the time series are about 3,8,16 and 23 years respectively.Among them,the presented maximum periodic oscillation is 23 years scale.2) In the 23-year time scale,the wet periods are 1950-1958,1969-1980 and 1992-2003,and the dry periods are 1959-1968,1981-1991 and 2004-2011.3) It can be predicted from the view of long time scales that the low annual runoff will likely occur in the near future.

ANALYSIS OF PERIODIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ERRATIC TRACK FREQUENCY FOR TYPHOON IN SOUTH CHINA SEA AND WEST PACIFIC

Typhoons with erratic movement are studied for their annual frequency of occurrence over the South China Sea and Northwest Pacific,based on 102 years of data (1884—1985).It discovers that the years with higher fre- quency tend to get together.There are well-defined periods of 12 and 30 years,revealed with the maximum entropy method (MEM),the latter of low-frequency oscillation being clearer.

Study of the effects on GPS coordinate time series caused by higher-order ionospheric corrections calculated using the DIPOLE model

As one of the main error sources in high-precision Global Positioning System （GPS） data processing, higher-order ionospheric （HOI） delays cause significant effects on coordinate time series that cannot be ignored in analyses of long time series. Typically two geomagnetic models, DIPOLE model and Inter- national Geomagnetic Reference Field （IGRF） model, are used for calculating HOI corrections. This paper investigates the effects of HOI correction caused by the DIPOLE model on coordinate time series. GPS data from 104 globally distributed International GNSS Service （IGS） stations spanning from January, 1999 to December, 2003 were reprocessed following up-to-date processing strategies utilizing GAMIT and GLOBK software. Two coordinate time series solutions before and after applying HOI corrections using the DIPOLE model were derived for studying the effects in terms of seasonal variations and noise amplitudes. The results show that after applying the HOI corrections calculated with DIPOLE, the noise amplitudes of the coordinate time series increased, especially in the north and east directions, and the increased amplitudes of the flicker noise were larger than those of the white noise. Furthermore, spurious periodic signals that were probably introduced by the HOI corrections from the DIPOLE model were also found. Moreover, an apparent increase was confirmed for the power spectra of most of the stations, especially in the north direction, and the amplitudes of both the annual and semi-annual signals also increased in the north and east directions. It can be inferred that the quality of the external data sources such as the geomagnetic model might be the key factors that lead to the above results. The results also suggest that we should be very careful when the DIPOLE model is used for HOI corrections.

Autonomous Formation Flight Control of Large-Sized Flapping-Wing Flying Robots Based on Leader–Follower Strategy

Birds in nature exhibit excellent long-distance flight capabilities through formation flight,which could reduce energy consumption and improve flight efficiency.Inspired by the biological habits of birds,this paper proposes an autonomous formation flight control method for Large-sized Flapping-Wing Flying Robots(LFWFRs),which can enhance their search range and flight efficiency.First,the kinematics model for LFWFRs is established.Then,an autonomous flight controller based on this model is designed,which has multiple flight control modes,including attitude stabilization,course keeping,hovering,and so on.Second,a formation flight control method is proposed based on the leader–follower strategy and periodic characteristics of flapping-wing flight.The up and down fluctuation of the fuselage of each LFWFR during wing flapping is considered in the control algorithm to keep the relative distance,which overcomes the trajectory divergence caused by sensor delay and fuselage fluctuation.Third,typical formation flight modes are realized,including straight formation,circular formation,and switching formation.Finally,the outdoor formation flight experiment is carried out,and the proposed autonomous formation flight control method is verified in real environment.