Scale-space effect and scale hybridization in image intelligent recognition of geological discontinuities on rock slopes

Geological discontinuity(GD)plays a pivotal role in determining the catastrophic mechanical failure of jointed rock masses.Accurate and efficient acquisition of GD networks is essential for characterizing and understanding the progressive damage mechanisms of slopes based on monitoring image data.Inspired by recent advances in computer vision,deep learning(DL)models have been widely utilized for image-based fracture identification.The multi-scale characteristics,image resolution and annotation quality of images will cause a scale-space effect(SSE)that makes features indistinguishable from noise,directly affecting the accuracy.However,this effect has not received adequate attention.Herein,we try to address this gap by collecting slope images at various proportional scales and constructing multi-scale datasets using image processing techniques.Next,we quantify the intensity of feature signals using metrics such as peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR)and structural similarity(SSIM).Combining these metrics with the scale-space theory,we investigate the influence of the SSE on the differentiation of multi-scale features and the accuracy of recognition.It is found that augmenting the image's detail capacity does not always yield benefits for vision-based recognition models.In light of these observations,we propose a scale hybridization approach based on the diffusion mechanism of scale-space representation.The results show that scale hybridization strengthens the tolerance of multi-scale feature recognition under complex environmental noise interference and significantly enhances the recognition accuracy of GD.It also facilitates the objective understanding,description and analysis of the rock behavior and stability of slopes from the perspective of image data.

Design and Realization of CPW Circuits Using EC-ANN Models for CPW Discontinuities

Novel accurate and efficient equivalent circuit trained artificial neural-network （EC-ANN） models,which inherit and improve upon EC model and EM-ANN models＇ advantages,are developed for coplanar waveguide （CPW） discontinuities. Modeled discontinuities include ： CPW step, interdigital capacitor, symmetric cross junction, and spiral inductor, for which validation tests are performed. These models allow for circuit design, simulation, and optimization within a CAD simulator. Design and realization of a coplanar lumped element band pass filter on GaAs using the developed CPW EC-ANN models are demonstrated.

Numerical modelling of stress analysis around rectangular tunnels with large discontinuities(fault) by a hybridized indirect BEM

Tunnels are one of the major transportation routes to pass mountains and difficult geological conditions. The behavior of these structures is significantly influenced by rock mass and discontinuities. Orientation of discontinuities is one of the most important geometrical parameters affecting discontinuities behavior. The effect of large discontinuities(faults) behavior on a jointed medium around rectangular tunnels is studied. A hybridized indirect boundary element code named TFSDDM(fictitious stress displacement discontinuity method) is used to study the stress distribution around the tunnels excavated in jointed rock masses. The code uses advantages of both fictitious stress and displacement discontinuity methods to analyze discontinuity effects more accurately. Results show that the dip angle of discontinuities has significant effect on stress distribution around the tunnel. It is also shown that increase in the discontinuities dip angle located in the roof will result in decrease in tensile stress of the roof. Stresses reaches to 8 MPa in the roof while due to dilation effect they reach up to 13 MPa.

Some Techniques for Solving Ordinary Differential Equations with Discontinuities in Real－time Simulation

This paper discusses some techniques for treating discontinuities of the right-hand functions of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) in real-time digital simulation (RTDS). The numericalexperiments show that these techniques are effective.

Imaging mantle transition zone discontinuities in southwest China from dense array ambient noise interferometry

Body waves retrieved from ambient noise cross-correlation functions（NCFs） have been reported by more and more recent studies in addition to the dominant recovered surface waves. And one of important applications of these recovered body waves is to investigate the structure of discontinuities within the mantle transition zone（MTZ）. In this study, clear body wave phases reflected from the MTZ discontinuities at 410 km and 660 km have been observed on the NCFs in the frequency band of 0.1–0.2 Hz from a dense regional seismic array in southwest China. The original timedomain reflected signals in the NCFs were first converted to the depth-domain NCFs based on a velocity model before they were further stacked spatially within different bins. Then the depth-domain NCFs were stacked to investigate the lateral variations of the MTZ discontinuities, that is, the 410-km and 660-km discontinuities. Our results exhibit a simple and lateral coherent P;P phase and a much more complicated P;P phase along two profiles, which are in good agreement with mineralogical prediction and recent receiver function studies in the same area. This interferometric method can provide stable reflected body wave phases mainly in the frequency band 0.1–0.2 Hz due to the secondary microseism noise, which can be potentially used for high-resolution mantle interface imaging. This approach is also a good complement to traditional imaging methods, such as receiver function imaging.

Adjoint Matching Condition for Parameterized Discontinuities—A Derivation Using Lagrangian-form Costfunction

The generalized adjoint property and adjoint matching condition for systems that contain discontinuous on/off switches are derived by a perturbation analysis of the Lagranging-form costfunction.

Characteristics of discontinuities in Heifangtai landslide area in Gansu,China

Loesses are widely distributed all over the world,especially in China.Meanwhile,long-term agricultural irrigation and extreme climate changes have led to frequent geological disasters in the Heifangtai area of Lanzhou,Gansu,China.Of these,landslides are one of the most frequent types of disasters that are harmful to humans and the environment.A landslide is closely related to the lithology,structure,and groundwater of the site and consists of a combination of structure units divided by discontinuities,such as faults,joints,and fi ssures.Therefore,geological surveys,engineering drilling,and trenching are typically used to identify the stratum lithology,structure,and groundwater in order to visually display underground information within a limited depth range.However,these methods have disadvantages.In particular,geological surveys can only describe geological phenomena on the surface,while the cost of drilling and trenching may be high,along with the ineffi ciency of exploration.In this research,the integrated geophysical exploration method was used to analyze the hidden joints,cracks,and other discontinuities and geophysical features of the discontinuities.The results were verified by trench exploration,and large amounts of underground information were obtained,especially the spread and distribution of discontinuities in landslide areas.Such information can be effectively used for carrying out and providing meaningful experiences and lessons in future comprehensive geophysical processing and interpretations related to the prediction and evaluation of landslides.

Treatment of discontinuities inside Earth models:Effects on computed coseismic deformations

In this paper,we study how coseismic deformations calculated in 1066 Earth models are affected by how the models treat Earth discontinuities.From the results of applying models 1066A(continuous)and 1066B(discontinuous),we find that the difference in Love numbers of strike-slip and horizontal tensile sources are bigger than dip-slip and vertical tensile sources.Taken collectively,discontinuities have major effects on Green’s functions of four independent sources.For the near-field coseismic deformations of the 2013 Okhotsk earthquake(Mw 8.3),the overall differences between theoretical calculations in vertical displacement,geoid,and gravity changes caused by discontinuities are 10.52 percent,9.07 percent and 6.19 percent,with RMS errors of 0.624 mm,0.029 mm,and 0.063μGal,respectively.The difference in far-field displacements is small,compared with GPS data,and we can neglect this effect.For the shallow earthquake,2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake(Mw 9.0),the differences in near-field displacements are 0.030 m(N-S),0.093 m(E-W),and 0.025 m(up-down)in our study area with the ARIA slip model,which gives results closer to GPS data than those from the USGS model.The difference in vertical displacements and gravity changes on the Earth’s surface caused by discontinuities are larger than 10 percent.The difference in the theoretical gravity changes at spatially fixed points truncated to degrees 60,as required by GRACE data,is 0.0016μGal and the discrepancy is 11 percent,with the theoretical spatial gravity changes from 1066B closer to observations than from 1066A.The results show that an Earth model with discontinuities in the medium has a large effect on the calculated coseismic deformations.

Coupling of Peridynamics and Numerical Substructure Method for Modeling Structures with Local Discontinuities

Peridynamics(PD)is a widely used theory to simulate discontinuities,but its application in real-world structural problems is somewhat limited due to the relatively low-efficiency.The numerical substructure method(NSM)presented by the authors and co-workers provides an efficient approach for modeling structures with local nonlinearities,which is usually restricted in problems of continuum mechanics.In this paper,an approach is presented to couple the PD theory with the NSM for modeling structures with local discontinuities,taking advantage of the powerful capability of the PD for discontinuities simulation and high computational efficiency of the NSM.The structure is simulated using liner elastic finite element(FE)model while the local cracking regions are isolated and simulated using a PD substructure model.A force corrector calculated from the PD model is applied on the FE model to consider the effect of discontinuities.The PD is integrated in the substructure model using interface elements with embedded PD nodes.The equations of motions of both the NSM system and the PD substructure are solved using the central difference method.Three examples of two-dimensional(2D)concrete cantilever beams under the concentrated force are investigated to verify the proposed coupling approach.

Tensile Properties of 3-Dimension-4-directional Braided C_f/Si C Composite based on Double-scale Model

The longitude tensile properties of 3-Dimension-4-directional（3D-4d） braided C/Si C composites（CMCs） were investigated with the help of a double scale model. This model involves micro-scale and unit-cell scale. In micro-scale, the tensile properties of fiber tows which involves matrix cracking, interfacial debonding, and fiber failure are studied. The unit-cell scale model can reflect the braided structure and simulate the tensile properties of 3D-4d CMCs by introducing the tensile properties of fiber tows into it. Quasi-static tensile tests of 3D-4d braided CMCs were performed on a PWS-100 test system. The predicted tensile stressstrain curve by the double scale model is in good agreement with that of the experimental results.

Effects of discontinuities on penetration of TBM cutters

Based on the triaxial testing machine and discrete element method, the effects of embedded crack on rock fragmentation are investigated in laboratory tests and a series of numerical investigations are conducted on the effects of discontinuities on cutting characteristics and cutting efficiency. In laboratory tests, five propagation patterns of radial cracks are observed. And in the numerical tests, firstly, it is similar to laboratory tests that cracks ahead of cutters mainly initiate from the crushed zone, and some minor cracks will initiate from joints. The cracks initiating from crushed zones will run through the thinner joints while they will be held back by thick joints. Cracks tend to propagate towards the tips of embedded cracks, and minor cracks will initiate from the tips of embedded cracks, which may result in the decrease of specific area, and disturbing layers play as ‘screens', which will prevent cracks from developing greatly. The peak penetration forces, the consumed energy in the penetration process and the uniaxial compression strength will decrease with the increase of discontinuities. The existence of discontinuities will result in the decrease of the cutting efficiency when the spacing between cutters is 70 mm. Some modifications should be made to improve the efficiency when the rocks containing groups of discontinuities are encountered.

Second-Order Discontinuities for Simple and Double Layers

Simple and double layers first appeared in electrostatics and later found various applications in mathematical physics. In this paper, we present the jump discontinuity conditions for their second-order spatial derivatives.

Clearance Effects in Parallel Manipulators： Position Error Discontinuities and Inertial Effects Influence

Clearances at joints cause an uncertainty in the actual posture of the end-effector of any mechanism. This uncertainty relays on the clearance dimension and the way these clearances are taken up by the mechanism under the load and the inertial effects at every instant. As a matter of fact, the actual measure of the pose error is often replaced by an uncertainty measure. However, a side effect of the existence of clearances is that they can cause sudden changes in the posture of the mechanism as a motion is performed. Such discontinuities in the position produce task defects and impacts. In this work a tool to determine the pose error due to clearances is presented together with a discontinuity analysis. In addition, effects of mass distribution and inertial effects on such discontinuities are expounded, taking a 3-PRS robot as example.

Determination of discontinuities in marble blocks via a nondestructive ultrasonic technique

Miners working in the marble industry have always been interested in identifying structural weaknesses in marble blocks before they are transported to marble processing plants. To achieve this difficult task, several simple methods have been developed among miners but observation-based methods do not consistently provide satisfactory results. A nondestructive method developed for testing concrete could be used for this purpose. In this study, this simple method based on differences in ultrasonic wave propagation in different materials was presented, and the test results performed both in the laboratory and a marble quarry were discussed.

DEALING WITH MOVINGS AND COLLISIONS OF ARBITRARY MANY DISCONTINUITIES IN CONSERVATIVE FRONT-TRACKING METHOD

An approach to deal with movings and collisions of arbitrary many discontinuities in the conservative front tracking method is developed. Using this approach one may develop an ＂all-purposed and robust＂ front-tracking algorithm. The algorithm with this approach may have some inconsistency and thus will have 0（1） magnitude errors in some grid cells at sometimes. Nevertheless, these errors will be eliminated by the conservation-preserving property of the front-tracking method in the following computation. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the approach.

Reconstruction of the Sturm-Liouville operator with discontinuities from a particular set of eigenvalues

Sturm-Liouville operators on a finite interval with discontinuities are considered. We give a uniqueness theorem for determining the potential and the parameters in boundary and under discontinuous conditions from a particular set of eigenvalues, and provide corresponding reconstruction algorithm, which can be applicable to McLaughlin-Rundell＇s uniqueness theorem （see J. Math. Phys. 28, 1987）.

Feature-preserving mesh denoising based on contextual discontinuities

Motivated by the conception of Lee et al.(2005)’s mesh saliency and Chen (2005)’s contextual discontinuities, a novel adaptive smoothing approach is proposed for noise removal and feature preservation. Mesh saliency is employed as a multiscale measure to detect contextual discontinuity for feature preserving and control of the smoothing speed. The proposed method is similar to the bilateral filter method. Comparative results demonstrate the simplicity and efficiency of the presented method, which makes it an excellent solution for smoothing 3D noisy meshes.

Lithological indicators of discontinuities in mountain soils rich in calcium carbonate in the Polish Carpathians

Six soils located within the Polish Carpathians,developed on calcium carbonate–rich sedimentary parent materials and representing various reference groups,were investigated in order to detect the lithic discontinuity.We propose using a multidirectional approach to assess the lithic discontinuity in these soils,one that includes grain size distribution,geochemical composition,heavy mineral content and micromorphology,supported by a traditional soil survey.A further aim of this process was to identify the possible admixture of allochthonous material of aeolian origin.The studied soils presented lithic discontinuities mostly at the contact of underlying calcium carbonate–rich coarsegrained slope deposits with the overlaying colluvium layer having a lower content of rock fragments.The significant changes in grain size distribution,especially in the silt and sand content,as well as high Uniformity Values and partially,high Lithological Discontinuity Index values,confirmed the occurrence of a lithic discontinuity in all studied soils.High heterogeneity in the soil profiles was also confirmed by the distribution of the major oxides;however,their distribution did not clearly indicate the lithic discontinuity.The most visible distinctions were noted from CaO content,which resulted from the deposition of carbonate-free materials(aeolian silts)and their mixing with the calcium carbonate–rich parent material.Furthermore,the analysis of heavy mineral content confirmed the allochthonous origin of the upper(and in some cases also the middle)parts of all profiles,which was manifested by the presence of highly weathering-resistant minerals such as zircon,epidote and various types of garnets.The micromorphological features of some of the studied soils showed distinctiveness within the soil profile,manifested by changes in b-fabric pattern,the occurrence and distribution of secondary carbonate and the coarse and fine coarse and fine ratio.Based on the high content of silt within the upper and middle parts of the soils,the content of Hf and Zr,as well as the higher content of weathering-resistant minerals,admixture of aeolian silt could be considered in some of the studied soils,yet with weak character.However,the dominance of minerals typical for metamorphic and igneous rocks suggested that the supply of aeolian silt was associated with loess covers rather than local sedimentary material.

MULTI-MODE NETWORK ANALYSIS FOR DISCONTINUITIES IN PARALLEL-PLATE WAVEGUIDES PARTIALLY FILLED WITH MULTI CHIRAL RODS

The reflection and transmission characteristics of the guided modes in parallel-plate waveguides partially filled with one or multi chiral rods have been investigated by a method, which combines the multi- mode network theory with a rigorous mode matching procedure. The formulas of the reflection and transmis- sion coefficient matrix are derived. The numerical results for different cases are presented and have indicated that the chirality parameters and the geometrical dimensions of the chiral rods have significant influence on the reflection and transmission characteristics of the guided modes.

Elastic Modulus Prediction of Three-dimension-4 Directional Braided C_f/SiC Composite Based on Double-scale Model

Double-scale model for three-dimension-4 directional（3D-4d） braided C/SiC composites has been proposed to investigate its elastic properties. The double-scale model involves micro-scale that takes fiber/ matrix/porosity in fibers tows into consideration with unit cell which considers the 3D-4d braiding structure. Micro-optical photographs of composites have been taken to study the braided structure. Then a parameterized finite element model that reflects the structure of 3D-4d braided composites is proposed. Double-scale elastic modulus prediction model is developed to predict the elastic properties of 3D-4d braided C/SiC composites. Stiffness and eompliance-averaging method and energy method are adopted to predict the elastic properties of composites. Static-tension experiments have been conducted to investigate the elastic modulus of 3D-4d braided C/SiC composites. Finally, the effect of micro-porosity in fibers tows on the elastic modulus of 3D-4d braided C/SiC composites has been studied. According to the conclusion of this thesis, elastic modulus predicted by energy method and stiffness-averaging method both find good agreement with the experimental values, when taking the micro-porosity in fibers tows into consideration. Differences between the theoretical and experimental values become smaller.