Catastrophic failure mechanism of rock masses system and earthquake prediction based on percolation theory

The failure of rocks is a complicated process as the mechanical properties of the rock are governed by loading history and cumulative ruptures.The geometric aspects of fractures,such as the size and shape of the fractures,the spatial distribution of the fracture networks,and the relations among these aspects also depend on the loads acting on rock mass.In general,the fractures are randomly generated in space which is difficult to be described using mathematical methods.In this paper,the failure processes of rock have been analyzed using the percolation theory.The results indicate that the failure process of rock is a transition from a stable state to an unstable state.This phenomenon is essentially consistent with the phase transition in the percolation theory.Based on this consistency,a theoretical model of percolation for earthquake prediction is proposed.A large number of seismic data provided strong evidence in support of the reliability and applicability of this model.

Temperature- and voltage-dependent trap generation model in high-k metal gate MOS device with percolation simulation

High-k metal gate stacks are being used to suppress the gate leakage due to tunneling for sub-45 nm technology nodes.The reliability of thin dielectric films becomes a limitation to device manufacturing,especially to the breakdown characteristic.In this work,a breakdown simulator based on a percolation model and the kinetic Monte Carlo method is set up,and the intrinsic relation between time to breakdown and trap generation rate R is studied by TDDB simulation.It is found that all degradation factors,such as trap generation rate time exponent m,Weibull slope β and percolation factor s,each could be expressed as a function of trap density time exponent α.Based on the percolation relation and power law lifetime projection,a temperature related trap generation model is proposed.The validity of this model is confirmed by comparing with experiment results.For other device and material conditions,the percolation relation provides a new way to study the relationship between trap generation and lifetime projection.

THE CORRELATION EFFECT ON THE CHAIN MOTION CONTRIBUTION TO IONIC TRANSPORT IN POLYMER ELECTROLYTES

The ionic transport process in polymer electrolytes (such as polyethylene oxide) wassimulated numerically on a two dimensional square lattice where charge carriers areaccommodated by the lattice sites connected randomly with available bonds to represent theamorphous chain configuration. Following the dynamic bond percolation theory(DBPT),the chainmotion contribution to the ionic conduction was incorporated via periodical renewal of the randombond configuration. To check and extend the prediction made by DBPT employing global abruptbond renewal,spatial correlation of the bond reassignment was introduced to the system by: 1)regional bond renewal and 2) organized bond motion. It is found that the difference between thediffusivities simulated involving regional bond renewal and those of DBPT becomes negligiblewhen the bond renewal rate approaches the carrier hopping rate.

Node interdependent percolation of multiplex hypergraph with weak interdependence

In recent years, there has been considerable attention and research on the higher-order interactions that are prevalent in various real-world networks. Hypergraphs, especially in the study of complex systems, are proved effective in capturing these interactions. To better characterize the model in reality, this paper proposes a theoretical model of node interdependent percolation in multiplex hypergraphs, considering “weak” interdependence. The proposed model includes pairwise and higher-order interactions, where the removal of nodes triggers cascading failures. However, interdependent nodes connected to failed nodes experience partial loss of connections due to “weak” interdependence, reflecting the self-sustaining capabilities of real-world systems. Percolation theory is applied to the analysis to investigate the properties of the percolation threshold and phase transition. Both analysis and simulation results show that as the strength of interdependence between nodes weakens, the network transitions from a discontinuous to a continuous phase, thereby increasing its robustness.

Structural and robustness properties of smart-city transportation networks

The concept of smart city gives an excellent resolution to construct and develop modern cities, and also demands infrastructure construction. How to build a safe, stable, and highly efficient public transportation system becomes an important topic in the process of city construction. In this work, we study the structural and robustness properties of transportation networks and their sub-networks. We introduce a complementary network model to study the relevance and complementarity between bus network and subway network. Our numerical results show that the mutual supplement of networks can improve the network robustness. This conclusion provides a theoretical basis for the construction of public traffic networks, and it also supports reasonable operation of managing smart cities.

Effect of mechanical ball milling on the electrical and powder bed properties of gas-atomized Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb and elucidation of the smoke mechanism in the powder bed fusion electron b eam melting process

Smoke is unexpected powder-splashing caused by electrostatic force and is one of the main problems hindering the process stability and applicability of the powder bed fusion electron beam(PBF-EB)tech-nology.In this study,mechanical stimulation was suggested to suppress smoke of gas-atomized(GA)Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb powder using Al_(2)O_(3) and WC ball milling.The deformation mechanism of the GA powder depending on the ball milling media was discussed based on the developed particle morphology distribu-tion map and contact mechanics simulation.It was revealed that the rapid decrement of flowability and packing density after WC ball milling owing to the formation of angular fragments by the brittle fracture.The variation of surface and electrical properties by mechanical stimulation was investigated via XPS,TEM,and Impedance analysis.The electrical resistivity of the ball-milled powders gradually decreased with increasing milling duration,despite the increased oxide film thickness,and the capacitive response disappeared in Al-60 and WC-30 via metal-insulator transition.This could be due to the accumulation of strain and defects on the oxide film via mechanical stimulation.The smoke mechanism of ball-milled powders was discussed based on the percolation theory.In the smoke experiment,smoke was more suppressed for WC-10 and WC-20 than that for Al-40 and Al-50,respectively,despite the longer charge dissipation time.This could be due to the high probability of contact with conductive particles.For the Al-60 and WC-30 powders,smoke was further restricted by the formation of a percolation cluster with metal-like electrical conductivity.We believe that this study will contribute to a better understanding of the smoke mechanism and process optimization of the PBF-EB.

Leveraging data fusion to improve barrier coverage in wireless sensor networks

Intruder detection and border surveillance are amongst the most promising applications of wireless sensor networks. Barrier coverage formulates these problems as constructing barriers in a long-thin region to detect intruders that cross the region. Existing studies on this topic are not only based on simplistic binary sensing model but also neglect the collaboration employed in many systems. In this paper, we propose a solution which exploits the collaboration of sensors to improve the performance of barrier coverage under probabilistic sensing model. First, the network width requirement, the sensor density and the number of barriers are derived under data fusion model when sensors are randomly distributed. Then, we present an efficient algorithm to construct barriers with a small number of sensors. The theoretical comparison shows that our solution can greatly improve barrier coverage via collaboration of sensors. We also conduct extensive simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution.

Rock Plasticity from Microtomography and Upscaling

We present a workflow for upscaling of rock properties using microtomography and percolation theory. In this paper we focus on a pilot study for assessing the plastic strength of rocks from a digital rock image. Firstly, we determine the size of mechanical representative volume ele- ment （RVE） by using upper/lower bound dissipation computations in accordance with thermody- namics. Then the mechanical RVE is used to simulate the rock failure at micro-scale using FEM. Two cases of different pressures of linear Drucker-Prager plasticity of rocks are computed to compute the macroscopic cohesion and the angle of internal friction of the rock. We also detect the critical exponents of yield stress for sealing laws from a series of derivative models that are created by a shrinking/expanding algorithm. We use microtomographic data sets of two carbonate samples and compare the results with previous results. The results show that natural rock samples with irregular structures may have the critical exponent of yield stress different from random models. This unexpected result could have significant ramifications for assessing the stability of solid materials with internal structure. Therefore our pilot study needs to be extended to investigate the scaling laws of strength of many more natural rocks with irregular microstructure.

Direct visualization of percolating metal-insulator transition in V_(2)O_(3) using scanning microwave impedance microscopy

Using the extensively studied V_(2)O_(3) as a prototype system, we investigate the role of percolation in metal-insulator transition(MIT). We apply scanning microwave impedance microscopy to directly determine the metallic phase fraction p and relate it to the macroscopic conductance G, which shows a sudden jump when p reaches the percolation threshold. Interestingly, the conductance G exhibits a hysteretic behavior against p, suggesting two different percolating processes upon cooling and warming. Based on our image analysis and model simulation, we ascribe such hysteretic behavior to different domain nucleation and growth processes between cooling and warming, which is likely caused by the decoupled structural and electronic transitions in V_(2)O_(3) during MIT. Our work provides a microscopic view of how the interplay of structural and electronic degrees of freedom affects MIT in strongly correlated systems.

Modern methods of underground hydromechanics with applications to reservoir engineering

In the report the basic principles of new approach to the study of transport processes in porous medium are represented. The ＂percolation＂ approach has arisen as an attempt to overcome the traditional phenomenological approach in the underground hydromechanics, based on the assumption of continuity of saturated porous media, which does not allow to explain and to model a number of effects arising from the fluids flow in porous media. The results obtained are very interesting not only from the scientific point of view but as the scientific basis for a number of enhanced oil recovery technologies.