Research on in-situ condition preserved coring and testing systems

As shallow resources are increasingly depleted,the mechanics'theory and testing technology of deep insitu rock has become urgent.Traditional coring technologies obtain rock samples without retaining the in-situ environmental conditions,leading to distortion of the measured parameters.Herein,a coring and testing systems retaining in-situ geological conditions is presented:the coring system that obtains in-situ rock samples,and the transfer and testing system that stores and analyzes the rocks under a reconstructed environment.The ICP-Coring system mainly consists of the pressure controller,active insulated core reactor and insulation layer and sealing film.The ultimate bearing strength of 100 MPa for pressurepreservation,temperature control accuracy of 0.97%for temperature-retained are realized.CH_(4)and CO permeability of the optimized sealing film are as low as 3.85 and 0.33 ppm/min.The average tensile elongation of the film is 152.4%and the light transmittance is reduced to 0%.Additionally,the pressure and steady-state temperature accuracy for reconstructing the in-situ environment of transfer and storage system up to 1%and±0.2 is achieved.The error recorded of the noncontact sensor ring made of lowdensity polymer is less than 6%than that of the contact test.The system can provide technical support for the deep in-situ rock mechanics research,improving deep resource acquisition capabilities and further clarifying deep-earth processes.

Prediction Research of Deformation Modulus of Weak Rock Zone under In-situ Conditions

Weak rock zone (soft interlayer, fault zone and soft rock) is the highlight of large-scale geological engineering research. It is an important boundary for analysis of rock mass stability. Weak rock zone has been formed in a long geological period, and in this period, various rocks have undergone long-term consolidation of geostatic stress and tectonic stress; therefore, under in-situ conditions, their density and modulus of deformation are relatively high. Due to its fragmentary nature, once being exposed to the earth's surface, the structure of weak rock zone will soon be loosened, its density will be reduced, and its modulus of deformation will also be reduced significantly. Generally, weak rock zone can be found in large construction projects, especially in the dam foundation rocks of hydropower stations. These rocks cannot be eliminated completely by excavation. Furthermore, all tests nowadays are carried out after the exposure of weak rock zone, modulus of deformation under in-situ conditions cannot be revealed. In this paper, a test method explored by the authors has been introduced. This method is a whole multilayered medium deformation method. It is unnecessary to eliminate the relatively complete rocks covering on weak rock zone. A theoretical formula to obtain the modulus of deformation in various mediums has also been introduced. On-site comparative trials and indoor deformation modulus tests under equivalent density conditions have been carried out. We adopted several methods for the prediction researches of the deformation modulus of weak rock zone under in-situ conditions, and revealed a fact that under in-situ conditions, the deformation modulus of weak rock zone are several times higher than the test results obtained after the exposure. In a perspective of geological engineering, the research findings have fundamentally changed peoples' concepts on the deformation modulus of weak rock zone, provided important theories and methods for precise definition of deformation modulus of deep weak rock zone under cap rock conditions, as well as for reasonable engineering applications.

In-situ study of the hydrogen peroxide photoproduction in seawater on carbon dot-based metal-free catalyst under operation condition

Hydrogen peroxide(H_(2)O_(2))photoproduction in seawater with metal-free photocatalysts derived from biomass materials is a green,sustainable,and ultra environmentally friendly way.However,most photocatalysts are always corroded or poisoned in seawater,resulting in a significantly reduced catalytic performance.Here,we report the metal-free photocatalysts(RUT-1 to RUT-5)with in-situ generated carbon dots(CDs)from biomass materials(Rutin)by a simple microwave-assisted pyrolysis method.Under visible light(λ≥420 nm,81.6 mW/cm^(2)),the optimized catalyst of RUT-4 is stable and can achieve a high H_(2)O_(2)yield of 330.36μmol/L in seawater,1.78 times higher than that in normal water.New transient potential scanning(TPS)tests are developed and operated to in-situ study the H_(2)O_(2)photoproduction of RUT-4 under operation condition.RUT-4 has strong oxygen(O_(2))absorption capacity,and the O_(2)reduction rate in seawater is higher than that in water.Metal cations in seawater further promote the photo-charge separation and facilitate the photo-reduction reaction.For RUT-4,the conduction band level under operating conditions only satisfies the requirement of O_(2)reduction but not for hydrogen(H2)evolution.This work provides new insights for the in-situ study of photocatalyst under operation condition,and gives a green and sustainable path for the H_(2)O_(2)photoproduction with metal-free catalysts in seawater.

In-situ sludge reduction based on Mn^(2+)-catalytic ozonation conditioning:Feasibility study and microbial mechanisms

To improve the sludge conditioning efficiency without increasing the ozone dose,an in-situ sludge reduction process based on Mn^(2+)-catalytic ozonation conditioning was proposed.Using ozone conditioning alone as a control,a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor coupled with ozonated sludge recycle was evaluated for its operating performance at an ozone dose of 75 mg O_(3)/g VSS and 1.5 mmol/L Mn^(2+)addition.The results showed a 39.4%reduction in MLSS and an observed sludge yield of 0.236 kg MLSS/kg COD for the O_(3)+Mn^(2+)group compared to the O_(3)group (15.3%and 0.292 kg MLSS/kg COD),accompanied by better COD,NH_(4)^(+)-N,TN and TP removal,improved effluent SS and limited impact on excess sludge properties.Subsequently,activity tests,BIOLOG ECO microplates and 16S rRNA sequencing were applied to elucidate the changing mechanisms of Mn^(2+)-catalytic ozonation related to microbial action:(1) Dehydrogenase activity reached a higher peak.(2) Microbial utilization of total carbon sources had an elevated effect,up to approximately 18%,and metabolic levels of six carbon sources were also increased,especially for sugars and amino acids most pronounced.(3) The abundance of Defluviicoccus under the phylum Proteobacteria was enhanced to 12.0%and dominated in the sludge,they had strong hydrolytic activity and metabolic capacity.Denitrifying bacteria of the genus Ferruginibacter also showed an abundance of 7.6%,they contributed to the solubilization and reduction of sludge biomass.These results could guide researchers to further reduce ozonation conditioning costs,improve sludge management and provide theoretical support.

Tidal flat erosion of the Huanghe River Delta due to local changes in hydrodynamic conditions

An ideal nature system for the study of post-depositional submarine mass changing under wave loading was selected in the intertidal platform of the subaqueous Huanghe River Delta, a delta formed during period from 1964 to 1976 as the Huanghe River discharged into the Bohai Gulf by Diaokou distributary. A road embankment constructed for petroleum recovery on the inter-tidal platform in 1995 induced the essential varieties of hydrodynamic conditions on the both sides of the road. With both sides sharing similarities in （1） initial sedimentary environment, （2） energetic wave loading, （3） differential hydrodynamic conditions in later stages, （4） enough long-range action, and （5） extreme shallow water inter-tidal platforms; the study is representative and feasible as well. Two study sites were selected on each side of the road, and a series of measurements, samplings, laboratory experiments have been carried out, including morphometry, hydrodynamic conditions, sediment properties, granularity composition, and fractal dimension calculation of the topography in the two adjacent areas. It was observed that in the outer zone, where wave loading with high magnitude prevailed, the tidal flat was bumpy and exhibited a high erosion rate and high fractal dimension. Further, the fractal dimension diminished quickly, keeping with the enlarging of calculative square size. However in the inner zone, where the hydrodynamic condition was weak, the tidal fiat was fiat and exhibited a low erosion rate and low fractal dimensions; the fractal dimension diminished with the enlarging of calcu- lative square size. The fractal dimensions in the different hydrodynamic areas equalized increasingly as the calculative square size accreted to threshold, indicating that the hydrodynamic condition plays a significant role in topography construction and submarine delta erosion process. Additionally, the later differentiation of sediment properties, granularity composition, microstructure characteristics, and mineral composition induced by the different hydrodynamic conditions can also contribute to the variation of topography and sea-bed erosion in the two adjacent areas.

Engineering behaviour of in situ cored deep cement mixed marine deposits subjected to undrained and drained shearing

The deep cement mixing(DCM)is used to improve the capacity and reduce the settlement of the soft ground by forming cemented clay columns.The investigation on the mechanical behaviour of the DCM samples is limited to either laboratory-prepared samples or in-situ samples under unconfined compression.In this study,a series of drained and undrained triaxial shearing tests was performed on the in-situ cored DCM samples with high cement content to assess their mechanical behaviours.It is found that the drainage condition affects significantly the stiffness,peak and residual strengths of the DCM samples,which is mainly due to the state of excess pore water pressure at different strain levels,i.e.being positive before the peak deviatoric stress and negative after the peak deviatoric stress,in the undrained tests.The slope of the failure envelope changes obviously with the confining pressures,being steeper at lower stress levels and flatter at higher stress levels.The strength parameters,effective cohesion and friction angle obtained from lower stress levels(c′0 andφ′0)are 400 kPa and 58°,respectively,which are deemed to be true for design in most DCM applications where the in-situ stress levels are normally at lower values of 50-200 kPa.Additionally,the computed tomography(CT)scanning system was adopted to visualize the internal structures of DCM samples.It is found that the clay pockets existing inside the DCM samples due to uneven mixing affect markedly their stress-strain behaviour,which is one of the main reasons for the high variability of the DCM samples.

Hollow glass microspheres/silicone rubber composite materials toward materials for high performance deep in-situ temperaturepreserved coring

Deep petroleum resources are stored under high temperature and pressure conditions,with the temperature having a significant influence on the properties of rocks.Deep in-situ temperature-preserved coring(ITP-coring)devices were developed to assess deep petroleum reserves accurately.Herein,hollow glass microspheres(HGMs)/silicone rubber(SR)composites that exhibit excellent thermal insulation properties were prepared as thermal insulation materials for deep ITP-coring devices.The mechanism and process of heat transfer in the composites were explored,as well as their other properties.The results show that the HGMs exhibit good compatibility with the SR matrix.When the volume fraction of the HGMs is increased to 50%,the density of the HGMs/SR composites is reduced from 0.97 to 0.56 g/cm^(3).The HGMs filler introduces large voids into the composites,reducing their thermal conductivity to 0.11 W/m·K.The addition of HGMs into the composites further enhances the thermal stability of the SR,wherein the higher the HGMs filler content,the better the thermal stability of the composites.HGMs significantly enhance the mechanical strength of the SR.HGMs increase the compressive strength of the composites by 828%and the tensile strength by 164%.Overall,HGMs improve the thermal insulation,pressure resistance,and thermal stability of HGMs/SR composites.

Laboratory study of fluid viscosity induced ultrasonic velocity dispersion in reservoir sandstones

Ultrasonic velocities of a set of saturated sandstone samples were measured at simulated in-situ pressures in the laboratory.The samples were obtained from the W formation of the WXS Depression and covered low to nearly high porosity and permeability ranges.The brine and four different density oils were used as pore fluids,which provided a good chance to investigate fluid viscosity-induced velocity dispersion.The analysis of experimental observations of velocity dispersion indicates that（1）the Biot model can explain most of the small discrepancy（about 2–3%）between ultrasonic measurements and zero frequency Gassmann predictions for high porosity and permeability samples saturated by all the fluids used in this experiment and is also valid for medium porosity and permeability samples saturated with low viscosity fluids（less than approximately 3 mP·S）and（2）the squirt flow mechanism dominates the low to medium porosity and permeability samples when fluid viscosity increases and produces large velocity dispersions as high as about 8%. The microfracture aspect ratios were also estimated for the reservoir sandstones and applied to calculate the characteristic frequency of the squirt flow model,above which the Gassmann’ s assumptions are violated and the measured high frequency velocities cannot be directly used for Gassmann’s fluid replacement at the exploration seismic frequency band for W formation sandstones.

Temperature change along elevation and its effect on the alpine timberline tree growth in the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau

Smith fir （Abies georgei var. smithii）, which is the timberline constructive tree species in the cool slope of Mt. Sygera in the southeast ofTibet, plays a very important role in maintaining the timberline completeness and indicating global climate change. This study uses theinstrumental recorded meteorological data along the altitude from 3600 to 4400 m at every 200 m in the growing season, investigates the smithfir growth biomass from 2006 to 2010 in the same timberline ecotone, and makes a non-linear regression analysis to determine the relationshipbetween the alpine tree growth biomass and its in-situ environment condition. The results showed that the cool and warm slope share different airtemperature lapse rates, which were
0.48 C （100 m）
1 in the warm slope and
0.54 C （100 m）
1 in the cool slope, respectively. However, thedominant timberline tree species in the warm slope was Sabina saltuaria, and it can reach as high as 4570 m, which is approximately 170 mhigher than that in the cool slope. Moreover, the smith fir in the cool slope was only distributed in the range of elevation from approximately3600 to 4400 m. The altitude of approximately 3800 m was the appropriate altitude for the growing smith fir, where the mean air temperature inthe growing season was about 9.0 C, and the young smith fir tree can form more biomass. The results suggested that alpine forest chose asuitable environment where trees can grow more in the prolonged succession, but not in the warmer or cooler condition, it could be seen as abiological evidence for climate change.

Frontier of continuous structural health monitoring system for short&medium span bridges and condition assessment

It is becoming an important social problem to make maintenance and rehabilitation of existing short and medium span(10-20 m)bridges because there are a huge amount of short and medium span bridges in service in the world.The kernel of such bridge management is to develop a method of safety(condition)assessment on items which include remaining life and load carrying capacity.Bridge health monitoring using information technology and sensors is capable of providing more accurate knowledge of bridge performance than traditional strategies.The aim of this paper is to introduce a state-of-the-art on not only a rational bridge health monitoring system incorporating with the information and communication technologies for lifetime management of existing short and medium span bridges but also a continuous data collecting system designed for bridge health monitoring of mainly short and medium span bridges.In this paper,although there are some useful monitoring methods for short and medium span bridges based on the qualitative or quantitative information,mainly two advanced structural health monitoring systems are described to review and analyse the potential of utilizing the long term health monitoring in safety assessment and management issues for short and medium span bridge.The first is a special designed mobile in-situ loading device(vehicle)for short and medium span road bridges to assess the structural safety(performance)and derive optimal strategies for maintenance using reliability based method.The second is a long term health monitoring method by using the public buses as part of a public transit system(called bus monitoring system)to be applied mainly to short and medium span bridges,along with safety indices,namely,"characteristic deflection"which is relatively free from the influence of dynamic disturbances due to such factors as the roughness of the road surface,and a structural anomaly parameter.

Geophysical criterion of pre-outburst coal outsqueezing from the face space into the working

The initial process of coal and gas sudden outburst is studied in the article when under the influence of rock and gas pressure the part of a coal seam layer(a coal section)is squeezed out from the mouth of the future outburst cavity in a jump-like manner into the working.Geo-mechanical criterion for a part of a coal seam layer outsqueezing in the form of the relation of active(squeezing out)and passive(preventing the outsqueezing)forces is defined in the article.Based on it,the geophysical criterion is defined by expressing basic physical parameters through geo-physical ones:the current stress is defined by spectral-acoustic method through the ratio of high frequency and low-frequency components of an acoustic signal,which is generated into a face working space by the mining equipment operating in the face;in-situ gas pressure is defined by gas analytical method by the concentration of methane in the atmosphere of the working;the strength of the most broken coal layer is defined by a strength measuring device(a device for measuring the depth of a steal cone punched into the coal by a spring mechanism).This paper studies the influence of acoustic,strength and filtrating and collecting properties of a face working space on the limit value of an obtained geophysical criterion of pre-outburst squeezing of a coal‘‘plug”out of the mouth of the future outburst cavity into the working.

Performance-driven design methodology for habitation shell design in extreme conditions on Mars

The research project illustrates how performance-driven design tools can be conducted as an architectural design methodology that suggests an innovative approach to design a habitation shell in extreme environmental conditions without human assistance.This research study attempts to use environmental data revealed by NASA and its habitat design requirements to develop a conceptual design for an innovative habitation form and then simulate it with Mars conditions to analyze the habitation shell’s structural behavior according to finite element analysis.In this regard,research phases,including layout configuration,form-finding,and structural analysis,have been conducted to explore a habitation concept implemented with generative design tools as a decision-maker in extreme conditions.In conclusion,two generated typologies of proposed habitation forms will be compared in terms of their structural performance under extreme loads of the martian environment.Within this research project,due to the numerous extreme challenges of design and construction of habitation in extreme conditions using conventional approaches,a performance-driven design methodology will provide a rational and sustainable design methodology to tackle extreme barriers to Mars’s environment.