Accurate method based on data filtering for quantitative multi-element analysis of soils using CF-LIBS

To obtain more stable spectral data for accurate quantitative analysis of multi-element,especially for the large-area in-situ elements detection of soils, we propose a method for a multielement quantitative analysis of soils using calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(CF-LIBS) based on data filtering. In this study, we analyze a standard soil sample doped with two heavy metal elements, Cu and Cd, with a specific focus on the line of Cu I324.75 nm for filtering the experimental data of multiple sample sets. Pre-and post-data filtering,the relative standard deviation for Cu decreased from 30% to 10%, The limits of detection(LOD)values for Cu and Cd decreased by 5% and 4%, respectively. Through CF-LIBS, a quantitative analysis was conducted to determine the relative content of elements in soils. Using Cu as a reference, the concentration of Cd was accurately calculated. The results show that post-data filtering, the average relative error of the Cd decreases from 11% to 5%, indicating the effectiveness of data filtering in improving the accuracy of quantitative analysis. Moreover, the content of Si, Fe and other elements can be accurately calculated using this method. To further correct the calculation, the results for Cd was used to provide a more precise calculation. This approach is of great importance for the large-area in-situ heavy metals and trace elements detection in soil, as well as for rapid and accurate quantitative analysis.

A Modified Model for Soil–Structure Interface Considering Random Damage of Mesoscopic Contact Elements

The interaction between soil and marine structures like submarine pipeline/pipe pile/suction caisson is a complicated geotechnical mechanism process.In this study,the interface is discretized into multiple mesoscopic contact elements that are damaged randomly throughout the shearing process due to the natural heterogeneity.The evolution equation of damage variable is developed based on the Weibull function,which is able to cover a rather wide range of distribution shapes by only two parameters,making it applicable for varying scenarios.Accordingly,a statistical damage model is established by incorporating Mohr–Coulomb strength criterion,in which the interfacial residual strength is considered whereby the strain softening behavior can be described.A concept of“semi-softening”characteristic point on shear stress–displacement curve is proposed for effectively modeling the evolution of strain softening.Finally,a series of ring shear tests of the interfaces between fine sea sand and smooth/rough steel surfaces are conducted.The predicted results using the proposed model are compared with experimental data of this study as well as some results from existing literature,indicating that the model has a good performance in modeling the progressive failure and strain softening behavior for various types of soil–structure interfaces.

A nonlinear interface structural damage model between ice crystal and frozen clay soil

The shear properties of ice-frozen soil interface are important when studying the constitutive model of frozen soil and slope stability in cold regions. In this research, a series of cryogenic direct shear tests for ice-frozen clay soil interface were conducted. Based on experimental results, a nonlinear interface structural damage model is proposed to describe the shear properties of ice-frozen clay soil interface. Firstly, the cementation and friction structural properties of frozen soil materials were analyzed, and a structural parameter of the ice-frozen clay soil interface is proposed based on the cryogenic direct shear test results. Secondly, a structural coefficient ratio is proposed to describe the structural development degree of ice-frozen clay soil interface under load, which is able to normalize the shear stress of ice-frozen clay soil interface,and the normalized data can be described by the Duncan-Chang model. Finally, the tangent stiffness of ice-frozen clay soil interface is calculated, which can be applied to the mechanics analysis of frozen soil. Also, the shear stress of ice-frozen clay soil interface calculated by the proposed model is compared with test results.

Anchorage properties at the interface between soil and roots with branches

Roots play an important role in stabilizing and strengthening soil. This article aims to study the mechanical properties of the interface between soil and roots with branches, using the pullout test method in the laboratory. The mechanical properties of the soil-root with branches interface is determined through the pullout-force and root-slippage curve （F-S curve）. The results of investigating 24 Pinus tabulaeformis single roots and 55 P. tabulaeformis roots with branches demonstrated three kinds of pullout test failures： breakage failure on branching root, breakage failure on branching node, and pullout failure. The branch angle had a remarkable effect on the failure mode of the roots with branches： the maximum pullout force increased with the sum of the branch diameters and the branch angle. The peak slippage and the initial force had a positive correlation with the sum of the branch diameter. The sig- nificance test of correlation between branch angle and the initial force, however, showed they had no correlation. Branch angle and branch root diameter affect the anchorage properties between root system and soil. Therefore, it is important to investigate the anchorage mechanics of the roots with branches to understand the mechanism of root reinforcement and anchorage.

Studying the mechanical properties of the soil-root interface using the pullout test method

It is important to quantify the effect of the root diameter, the embedment length of the root and load speed on the soil-root interface mechanical properties for studying the root anchorage. The soilroot interface mechanical properties can be obtained through the pullout force and root slippage curve(F-S curve). About 120 Pinus tabulaeformis single roots whose diameters ranged from 1 mm to 10 mm divided into 6 groups based on different root embedment length(50 mm, 100 mm and 150 mm) and different load velocity(10 mm·min^(-1), 50 mm·min^(-1), 100 mm·min^(-1) and 300 mm·min^(-1)) were investigated using the pullout method. This study aims to explore the mechanical properties of the soil-root interface in the real conditions using the pullout test method. The results showed two kinds of pullout test failure modes during the experimental process: breakage failure and pullout failure. The results showed that the roots were easier to be broken when the root diameter was smaller or the loading speed was larger. The relationship between the maximum anchorage force and root diameter was linear and the linearly dependent coefficient(R^2) was larger than 0.85. The anchorage force increased with the root embedment length. An increase of 10%^(-1)5% for the maximumanchorage force was found when load speed increased from 10 to 300 mm.min^(-1). The mean peak slippage of the root was from 13.81 to 35.79 mm when the load velocity varied from 10 to 300 mm.min^(-1). The study will be helpful for the design of slopes reinforced by vegetation and in predicting risk of uprooting of trees, and will have practical benefits for understanding the mechanism of landslide.

Attenuation of rock blasting induced ground vibration in rock-soil interface

Blasting has been widely used in mining and construction industries for rock breaking.This paper presents the results of a series of field tests conducted to investigate the ground wave propagation through mixed geological media.The tests were conducted at a site in the northwestern part of Singapore composed of residual soil and granitic rock.The field test aims to provide measurement data to better understand the stress wave propagation in soil/rock and along their interface.Triaxial accelerometers were used for the free field vibration monitoring.The measured results are presented and discussed,and empirical formulae for predicting peak particle velocity (PPV) attenuation along the ground surface and in soil/rock were derived from the measured data.Also,the ground vibration attenuation across the soil-rock interface was carefully examined,and it was found that the PPV of ground vibration was decreased by 37.2% when it travels from rock to soil in the vertical direction.

Probit Analysis of Carbamate-Pesticide-Toxicity at Soil-Water Interface to N_2-Fixing Cyanobacterium Cylindrospermum sp.

Toxicity-data of two carbamate insecticides, carbaryl and carbofuran, and three fungicides, ziram, zineb and mancozeb with rice-field N2-fixing cyanobacterium Cylindrospermum sp., obtained by in vitro growth and at soil-water interface, were analyzed by the probit method. Growth enhancing concentration, no-observed effective concentration, minimum inhibitory concentration, the highest permissive concentration and lethal concentration100 （LCloo） were determined experimentally. The LC^o values of carbaryl, carbofuran, ziram, zineb and mancozeb in N2-fixing liquid medium were 56.2, 588.8, 0.07, 4.2 and 3.4 IJg/mL, respectively, whereas the corresponding LCloo values were 100.0, 1500.0, 0.17, 25.0 and 9.0 IJg/mL, respectively. The LC50 values of these pesticides in succession in N2-fixing agar medium were 44.7, 239.9, 0.07, 1.8 and 2.3 IJg/mL, respectively, whereas the corresponding LC100 values were 100.0, 600.0, 0.17, 10.0 and 7.0 IJg/mL, respectively. Similar results with nitrate supplemented liquid and agar media indicated that nitrate supplementation had toxicity reducing effect. The LCso and LC^oo values of toxicity in the N2-fixing liquid medium at soil-water interface were 91.2 and 200.0 IJg/mL for carbaryl, 2 317 and 6 000 pg/mL for carbofuran, 0.15 and 0.50 pg/mL for ziram, 16.4 and 50.0 pg/mL for zineb, and 7.2 and 25.0 pg/mL for mancozeb, respectively. Each LC^oo value at soil- water interface with a pesticide was significantly higher than its corresponding LCloo value at liquid/agar media. It can be concluded that, under the N2-fixing conditions, the cyanobacterium tolerated higher levels of each pesticide at soil-water interface.

A study on dynamic shear strength on frozen soil-concrete interface

Using newly developed dynamic shearing devices, the dynamic sheafing strength of frozen soil-conerete interface was studied experimentally. By placing concrete blocks in the lower half of the shear box and frozen soil sample in the upper part, a series of dynamic shear tests on their interfaces were carried out. The obtained results are summarized and the main influencing factors are revealed.

Friction Characteristics at the Pipe-Soil Interface

-In order to analyze the stability of pipelines on the sea bed, the friction characteristics at the pipe-soil interface were examined by means of special direct shear tests. High density polythene was used as the surface of the pipe, which is a widely-utilized material for the outer cover of the pipe to prevent sea water corrosion. Sands of different gradings were tested. The reconstituted soft clay taken from the Bohai area was consolidated to different degrees of consolidation by the vacuum preloading technique, and tested.

Constitutive model of disturbed soil-structure interface within mining subsidence areas

The characteristics of a disturbed soil-structure interface were studied based on the variation regularities of the disturbed soil within its mining subsidence area using direct shear tests.The effects of the initial moisture content on the shear strength parameters of the soil-structure interfaces were analyzed.The results indicate that the cohesion of the interface initially increased and then decreased as the initial moisture content increased.In addition,the friction angle of the interface decreased as the initial moisture content increased.A constitutive model of the disturbed soil-structure interface,a rigid-plastic model based on the initial void ratio and saturability(VSRP) model,was established based on the results.In order to validate this model,a finite element analysis of DRS-1 direct shear tests was conducted.The finite element model calculations coincided with the results of the DRS-1 direct shear tests.The proposed model also reflected the nonlinear features of the soil-structure interface.

Spatial and temporal variation of soil moisture near the interface of high/low stands

In order to explore the spatial variability of soil moisture near the interface of high/low stands, an experiment was conducted at Luancheng Experimental Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hebei, China from May to June, 1996. By analyzing the observed soil moisture data, it shows that there exists an obvious turning point of soil moisture pattern from one side of the interface to another. The effect of drier soil closer to the interface in winter wheat field is obvious, which is mainly due to the better ventilation condition near the interface in winter wheat filed than in alfalfa field. The irrigation in large scale is one of the most important factors to control the spatial pattern of soil moisture while the small scale human disturbing activity, such as the stealing event occurred during our observation, does not change the spatial pattern of soil moisture obviously. Latent heat, calculated by Bowen ratio method based on our observed micrometeorological data, is shown larger in alfalfa than that in winter wheat both at earring stage from May 8 to 10 and mature stage from June 11 to 14. This fact, together with the larger ground temperature and a little bit larger wind velocity in lower layer, explains that the soil is drier in alfalfa than in winter wheat from May 8 to 10. While for the period from June 11 to 14, irrigation's effect changes the natural interrelationship of soil moisture with meteorology and ground temperature.

Behaviours of Soil-Root Interface and Their Variations with Wheat Varieties

Water movement into and out of roots depends on the water potential difference between the bulk soiland the root xylem and the total hydraulic conductance of the pathway, which can be divided into three parts,i.e. soil conductance, soil-root conductance and root conductance. The vaues and relative importance varywith soil water content. The general rule is that water uptake by roots is mainly limited by radial hydraulicconductance of roots in wet soils, the soil-root interfaCe becomes a major limiting factor to water uptake inmoderately dry soils, and the water uptake is limited by the rapidly decreasing soil hydraulic conductance inseriously dry soils. Meanwhile these limiting factors vary with crop variety, and these variations can be usedto evaluate the drought-resistance and water use efficiency of crops.

Electronically Tunable Minimum Component Biquadratic Filters for Interface Circuits

In this paper, two new electronically tunable filter configurations are proposed. The proposed filters operate current-mode (CM), voltage-mode (VM), transimpedance-mode (TIM) and transadmittance-mode (TAM). The first configuration realizes second-order VM band-pass and TAM high-pass filter characteristics from the same configuration. The second one realizes second-order TIM band-pass and CM low-pass filter characteristics from the same configuration. They also use minimum number of electronic components (two capacitors and one active component namely;current controlled current difference transconductance amplifier). The workability of the proposed structures has been demonstrated by simulation results.

Estimating the Soil Moisture Profile by Assimilating Near-Surface Observations with the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF)

The paper investigates the ability to retrieve the true soil moisture profile by assimilating near-surface soil moisture into a soil moisture model with an ensemble Kalman filter （EnKF） assimilation scheme, including the effect of ensemble size, update interval and nonlinearities in the profile retrieval, the required time for full retrieval of the soil moisture profiles, and the possible influence of the depth of the soil moisture observation. These questions are addressed by a desktop study using synthetic data. The ＂true＂ soil moisture profiles are generated from the soil moisture model under the boundary condition of 0.5 cm d^-1 evaporation. To test the assimilation schemes, the model is initialized with a poor initial guess of the soil moisture profile, and different ensemble sizes are tested showing that an ensemble of 40 members is enough to represent the covariance of the model forecasts. Also compared are the results with those from the direct insertion assimilation scheme, showing that the EnKF is superior to the direct insertion assimilation scheme, for hourly observations, with retrieval of the soil moisture profile being achieved in 16 h as compared to 12 days or more. For daily observations, the true soil moisture profile is achieved in about 15 days with the EnKF, but it is impossible to approximate the true moisture within 18 days by using direct insertion. It is also found that observation depth does not have a significant effect on profile retrieval time for the EnKF. The nonlinearities have some negative influence on the optimal estimates of soil moisture profile but not very seriously.

A plasticity model for sand-structure interfaces

The predictive capacity of numerical analyses in geotechnical engineering depends strongly on the efficiency of constitutive models used for modeling of interfaces behavior.Interfaces are considered as thin layers of the soil adjacent to structures boundary whose major role is transferring loads from structures to soil masses.An interface model within the bounding surface plasticity framework and the critical state soil mechanics is presented.To this aim,general formulation of the interface model according to the bounding surface plasticity theory is described first.Similar to granular soils,it has been shown that the mechanical behavior of sand-structure interfaces is highly affected by the interface state that is the combined influences of density and applied normal stress.Therefore,several ingredients of the model are directly related to the interface state.As a result of this feature,the model is enabled to distinguish interfaces in dense state from those in loose state and to provide realistic predictions over wide ranges of density and normal stress values.In evaluation of the model,a reasonable correspondence between the model predictions and the experimental data of various research teams is found.

Data assimilation using support vector machines and ensemble Kalman filter for multi-layer soil moisture prediction

Hybrid data assimilation （DA） is a method seeing more use in recent hydrology and water resources research. In this study, a DA method coupled with the support vector machines （SVMs） and the ensemble Kalman filter （EnKF） technology was used for the prediction of soil moisture in different soil layers： 0-5 cm, 30 cm, 50 cm, 100 cm, 200 cm, and 300 cm. The SVM methodology was first used to train the ground measurements of soil moisture and meteorological parameters from the Meilin study area, in East China, to construct soil moisture statistical prediction models. Subsequent observations and their statistics were used for predictions, with two approaches： the SVM predictor and the SVM-EnKF model made by coupling the SVM model with the EnKF technique using the DA method. Validation results showed that the proposed SVM-EnKF model can improve the prediction results of soil moisture in different layers, from the surface to the root zone.

Time-domain identification of dynamic properties of layered soil by using extended Kalman filter and recorded seismic data

A novel time-domain identification technique is developed for the seismic response analysis of soil-structure interaction.A two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) model with eight lumped parameters is adopted to model the frequency- dependent behavior of soils.For layered soil,the equivalent eight parameters of the 2DOF model are identified by the extended Kalman filter (EKF) method using recorded seismic data.The polynomial approximations for derivation of state estimators are applied in the EKF procedure.A realistic identification example is given for the layered-soil of a building site in Anchorage,Alaska in the United States.Results of the example demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of the proposed identification technique.The 2DOF soil model and the identification technique can be used for nonlinear response analysis of soil-structure interaction in the time-domain for layered or complex soil conditions.The identified parameters can be stored in a database tor use in other similar soil conditions,lfa universal database that covers information related to most soil conditions is developed in the thture,engineers could conveniently perform time history analyses of soil-structural interaction.

Regulating Ecosystem Service (Filtering/ Immobilization of Inorganic Pollutants) Supplied by Soil in Model Regions of Slovakia

The immobilization of soil contaminants (as one of the regulating ecosystem services) plays very important role in environment. This regulatory service prevents groundwater contamination and the entry of contaminants into the food chain. The evaluation as well as the spatial distribution of this regulatory service is important for optimal land management in a specific region. Mapping system combining input layers—slope topography, soil texture, climate region and land use (arable land, grassland)—were created for the analysis and the evaluation of potential of agroecosystem services. Filtering potential was calculated as accumulative function of soil sorption potential and potential of total content of inorganic pollutants evaluated according to The Slovak Soil Law. Calculated potential was categorised into five categories: very low, low, medium, high and very high. Four model areas were selected for the analysis of pollutant filtration, as one of the regulatory agroecosystem services, which are located in different climatic areas and different soil-ecological conditions of Slovakia. The greatest differences among model regions can be found in relation to climatic conditions, land use and diversity of soil types. The warm, dry, and lowland region has a higher potential for pollutant filtration than the moderately warm or cold region. These results are consistent with the location of the soil, its properties, processes and functions within the concept of agro-ecosystem services. Based on the results, we can state that the high risk of inorganic contaminants is inherent in soils with low content and quality of organic substances, low pH value and high concentration of contaminants.

Design of an EEG Preamplifier for Brain-Computer Interface

As a non-invasive neurophysiologieal index for brain-computer interface （BCI）, electroencephalogram （EEG） attracts much attention at present. In order to have a portable BCI, a simple and efficient pre-amplifier is crucial in practice. In this work, a preamplifier based on the characteristics of EEG signals is designed, which consists of a highly symmetrical input stage, low-pass filter, 50 Hz notch filter and a post amplifier. A prototype of this EEG module is fabricated and EEG data are obtained through an actual experiment. The results demonstrate that the EEG preamplifier will be a promising unit for BCI in the future.

A Simplified Method for Estimating the Initial Stiffness of Monopile-Soil Interaction Under Lateral Loads in Offshore Wind Turbine Systems

The interface mechanical behavior of a monopile is an important component of the overall offshore wind turbine structure design.Understanding the soil-structure interaction,particularly the initial soil-structure stiffness,has a significant impact on the study of natural frequency and dynamic response of the monopile.In this paper,a simplified method for estimating the interface mechanical behavior of monopiles under initial lateral loads is proposed.Depending on the principle of minimum potential energy and virtual work theory,the functions of soil reaction components at the interface of monopiles are derived;MATLAB programming has been used to simplify the functions of the initial stiffness by fitting a large number of examples;then the functions are validated against the field test data and FDM results.This method can modify the modulus of the subgrade reaction in the p-y curve method for the monopile-supported offshore wind turbine system.