Seismic damage of highway bridges during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Many highway bridges were severely damaged or completely collapsed during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. A field investigation was carried out in the strongly affected areas and over 320 bridges were examined. Damage to some representative highway bridges is briefly described and a preliminary analysis of the probable causes of the damage is presented in this paper. The most common damage included shear-flexural failure of the pier columns, expansion joint failure, shear key failure, and girder sliding in the transversal or longitudinal directions due to weak connections between girder and bearings. Lessons learned from this earthquake are described and recommendations related to the design of curved and skewed bridges, design of bearings and devices to prevent girder collapse, and ductility of bridge piers are presented. Suggestions for future seismic design and retrofitting techniques for bridges in moderate to severe earthquake areas are also proposed.

Dynamic Analysis of Tension Leg Platform for Offshore Wind Turbine Support as Fluid-Structure Interaction

Tension leg platform （TLP） for offshore wind turbine support is a new type structure in wind energy utilization. The strong-interaction method is used in analyzing the coupled model, and the dynamic characteristics of the TLP for offshore wind turbine support are recognized. As shown by the calculated results： for the lower modes, the shapes are water＇s vibration, and the vibration of water induces the structure＇s swing; the mode shapes of the structure are complex, and can largely change among different members; the mode shapes of the platform are related to the tower＇s. The frequencies of the structure do not change much after adjusting the length of the tension cables and the depth of the platform; the TLP has good adaptability for the water depths and the environment loads. The change of the size and parameters of TLP can improve the dynamic characteristics, which can reduce the vibration of the TLP caused by the loads. Through the vibration analysis, the natural vibration frequencies of TLP can be distinguished from the frequencies of condition loads, and thus the resonance vibration can be avoided, therefore the offshore wind turbine can work normally in the complex conditions.

Safety assessment of platform loadout procedures based on unascertained measures

Safety assessment of offshore platforms is an urgent task. Such assessments are now focusing on the structure, maintenance, and retirement of a platform. Some methods employed have many shortcomings. For example, they cannot make the reliability adequately explicable. Therefore, a mathematical tool, the unascertained measure, was introduced. First, the basic knowledge of the unascertained sets was introduced briefly. Second, the unascertained measure was defined and credible identification was set up. The method has been introduced into the fields for safety assessment of a jacket loadout procedure. Engineering practices showed that it can complete the safety assessment systematically and scientifically without any assumption. The work should have significance in theory and practice for offshore engineering.

Spatial variation of health risk of groundwater for drinking water supply in Mingshan County,Ya'an City,China

Rural drinking water safety is a growing concern in China. This study investigated the health risk of pollution of groundwater for the drinking water supply in Mingshan County, Ya＇an City, in Sichuan Province, China, using 46 samples from the years 1991 to 2010. Carcinogenic, non-carcinogenic, and total risks were assessed by the model recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency （U.S. EPA）. Thematic maps of the risks caused by single and multiple factors were generated from inverse distance weighting interpolation （IDW） and the geostatistical analysis functions of ArcGIS. The results show that the carcinogenic risks caused by chemicals in groundwater for drinking water supply are low, within the acceptable interval for risk management. However, non-carcinogenic risks are high and the number of sampling sites with risk values exceeding the standards amounted to 29. Non-carcinogenic risks of Cr6＋, nitrate, fluoride, and Fe at sites 43, 46, 50, 64, 67, and 74 were the sources that caused high total health risk. This study reveals the risk level of groundwater quality and orders of treatment of pollutants, and provides a scientific basis for groundwater management in this area.

Increased southerly and easterly water vapor transport contributed to the dry-to-wet transition of summer precipitation over the Three-River Headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau

The Three-River Headwaters(TRH)region in the Tibetan Plateau is vulnerable to climate change;changes in summer(June–August)precipitation have a significant impact on water security and sustainability in both local and downstream areas.However,the changes in summer precipitation of different intensities over the TRH region,along with their influencing factors,remain unclear.In this study,we used observational and ERA5 reanalysis data and employed a precipitation categorization and water vapor budget analysis to quantify the categorized precipitation variations and investigate their possible linkages with the water vapor budget.Our results showed an increasing trend in summer precipitation at a rate of 0.9 per year(p<0.1)during 1979–2020,with a significant dry-to-wet transition in 2002.The category‘very heavy precipitation’(10 mm d−1)contributed 65.1%of the increased summer precipitation,which occurred frequently in the northern TRH region.The dry-to-wet transition was caused by the effects of varied atmospheric circulations in each subregion.Southwesterly water vapor transport through the southern boundary was responsible for the increased net water vapor flux in the western TRH region(158.2%),while southeasterly water vapor transport through the eastern boundary was responsible for the increased net water vapor flux in the central TRH(155.2%)and eastern TRH(229.2%)regions.Therefore,we inferred that the dry-to-wet transition of summer precipitation and the increased‘very heavy precipitation’over the TRH was caused by increased easterly and southerly water vapor transport.

Microstructural evolution of a steam-turbine rotor subjected to a water-quenching process: numerical simulation and experimental verification

Cr-Ni-Mo-V steam-turbine rotors have been widely used as key components in power plants. In this study, a coupled thermomechano-metallurgical model was proposed to simulate the phase transformation and transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) of a 30Cr2Ni4MoV steam-turbine rotor during a water-quenching process, which was solved using a user defined material mechanical behavior (UMAT) subroutine in ABAQUS. The thermal dilation, heat generation from plastic work, transformation latent heat, phase transformation kinetics, and TRIP were considered in the model. The thermomechanical portion of the model was used to predict the evolution of temperature, strain, and residual stress in the rotor. The phase transformation that occurred during the quenching process was considered. Constitutive models of phase transformations (austenite to pearlite, austenite to bainite, and austenite to martensite) and TRIP were developed. Experimental data were adopted and compared with the predicted results to verify the accuracy of the model. This demonstrates that the model is reliable and accurate. Then, the model was utilized to predict the temperature variation, dimensional change, minimum austenitization time, residual stress, TRIP, and volume fractions of each phase. It is concluded that this model can be a useful computational tool in the design of heat-treatment routines of steam-turbine rotors.