Resource and environmental factors should be included in economic analytical framework

In the economic analysis framework,natural resources and environmental factors are included in the category of capital or land.Hence,the explanatory variables of the production function only include capital,labor and the residue term technology.Such framework may be designed for methodological reasons,but it is

Analytical modeling of sandwich beam for piezoelectric bender elements

Piezoelectric bender elements are widely used as electromechanical sensors and actuators, An analytical sandwich beam model for piezoelectric bender elements was developed based on the first-order shear deformation theory （FSDT）, which assumes a single rotation angle for the whole cross-section and a quadratic distribution function for coupled electric potential in piezoelectric layers, and corrects the effect of transverse shear strain on the electric displacement integration. Free vibration analysis of simplysupported bender elements was carried out and the numerical results showed that, solutions of the present model for various thickness-to-length ratios are compared well with the exact two-dimensional solutions, which presents an efficient and accurate model for analyzing dynamic electromechanical responses of bender elements.

Analytical solution for slope instability assessment considering impact of confined aquifer

An analytical approach was presented for estimating the factor of safety(FS) for slope failure, with consideration of the impact of a confined aquifer. An upward-moving wetting front from the confined water was assumed and the pore water pressure distribution was then estimated and used to obtain the analytical expression of FS. Then, the validation of the theoretical analysis was applied based on an actual case in Hong Kong. It is shown that the presence of a confined aquifer leads to a lower FS value, and the impact rate of hydrostatic pressure on FS increases as the confined water pressure increases, approaching to a maximum value determined by the ratio of water density to saturated soil density. It is also presented that the contribution of hydrostatic pressure and hydrodynamic pressure to the slope stability vary with the confined aquifer pressure.

Modeling the Synergetic Effect of Various Factors on Chloride Transport in Nonsaturated Concrete

Diffusion has been systematically described as the main mechanism of chloride transport in reinforced concrete（RC） structure, especially when the concrete is in a saturated state. However, the single mechanism of diffusion is not able to describe the actual chloride ingress in the nonsaturated concrete. Instead, it is dominated by the interaction of diffusion and convection. With the synergetic effects of various factors taken into account, this study aimed to modify and develop an analytical convection- diffusion coupling model for chloride transport in nonsaturated concrete. The model was verified by simulation of laboratory tests and field measurement. The results of comparison study demonstrate that the analytical model developed in this study is efficient and accurate in predicting the chloride profiles in the nonsaturated concrete.