Determination of Dynamic Shear Modulus of Soils from Static Strength

A correlation study between the dynamic shear modulus obtained from the resonant column technique and the static strength obtained from the undrained triaxial compression test is described. The materials studied were a uniform sand, a non-active fine silty clay and a highly-active bentonite clay treated with additives to increase the range for static and dynamic shear strength of the soils. It is noted that a linear relationship exists between the dynamic shear modulus, except for those soil specimens having very low strength, independent of test parameters. Using linear regression analysis, empirical equations for predicting the maximum dynamic shear modulus from the static strength have been obtained for the three different soils

The Effect of Microplastic Fibers on the Freshwater Amphipod, Hyalella Azteca

Microplastics are a growing and persistent contaminant in aquatic ecosystems. There is a wide variety of shapes that MPs can take, with fibers being the most prominently found in marine systems. Few studies have investigated the toxicological implications of MP exposure to freshwater organisms, and none so far has quantified the effect that fibers, as compared to spherical particles, may have on aquatic organisms. A 42-day chronic exposure to polypropylene MP fibers (0 – 22.5 MPs/mL) was conducted in order to investigate potential effects on mortality, growth, reproduction, and egestion times. Significant mortality was only observed at the highest concentration (22.5 MPs/mL). Growth and reproduction is also significantly less than the control at all exposures to MP fibers, with no mating pairs forming at all in concentrations greater than 5.63 MPs/mL. Interestingly, gut clearance times after exposure to MP fibers is also greater at concentrations greater than 5.63 MPs/mL. Delays in reproduction and growth may result from deficiencies in nutrient uptake. This study provides further insight on how the shape of MPs may hold significant implications on their toxicity to aquatic organisms

Comparative performance of squeeze film air journal bearings made of aluminium and copper

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. Copyright @ 2012 The Authors - The article can be accessed from the links below.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Two tubular squeeze film journal bearings, made from Al 2024 T3 and Cu C101, were excited by driving the single-layer piezoelectric actuators at a 75-V AC with a 75-V DC offset. The input excitation frequencies were coincident with the 13th modal frequency, at 16.32 and 12.18 kHz for the respective Al and Cu bearings, in order to produce a ‘triangular’ modal shape. The paper also provided a CFX model, used to solve the Reynolds equation and the equation of motion, to explain the squeeze film effect of an oscillating plate with pressure end leakage. The dynamic characteristics of both bearings were studied in ANSYS and then validated by experiments with respect to their squeeze film thickness and load-carrying capacity. It was observed that whilst both bearings did levitate a load when excited at mode 13, the Al bearing showed a better floating performance than Cu bearing. This is due to the fact that the Al bearing had a higher modal frequency and a greater amplitude response than the Cu bearing.This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Infrared Phase-Change Meta-Devices with In-Situ Switching

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the European Phase Change and Ovonics Symposium via the link in this recordWe describe a possible device design approach and an experimental test platform suitable for the realization and characterization of phase-change based meta-devices incorporating in-situ switching and operating at infrared wavelengths. Measurements on such a prototype device working at 1.55 µm are presented.US Naval Research LaboratoriesEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

New Results for the Correlation Functions of the Ising Model and the Transverse Ising Chain

In this paper we show how an infinite system of coupled Toda-type nonlinear differential equations derived by one of us can be used efficiently to calculate the time-dependent pair-correlations in the Ising chain in a transverse field. The results are seen to match extremely well long large-time asymptotic expansions newly derived here. For our initial conditions we use new long asymptotic expansions for the equal-time pair correlation functions of the transverse Ising chain, extending an old result of T.T. Wu for the 2d Ising model. Using this one can also study the equal-time wavevector-dependent correlation function of the quantum chain, a.k.a. the q-dependent diagonal susceptibility in the 2d Ising model, in great detail with very little computational effort.Comment: LaTeX 2e, 31 pages, 8 figures (16 eps files). vs2: Two references added and minor changes of style. vs3: Corrections made and reference adde

Impact of Seismic Risk on Lifetime Property Values

This report presents a methodology for establishing the uncertain net asset value, NAV, of a real-estate investment opportunity considering both market risk and seismic risk for the property. It also presents a decision-making procedure to assist in making real-estate investment choices under conditions of uncertainty and risk-aversion. It is shown that that market risk, as measured by the coefficient of variation of NAV, is at least 0.2 and may exceed 1.0. In a situation of such high uncertainty, where potential gains and losses are large relative to a decision-maker's risk tolerance, it is appropriate to adopt a decision-analysis approach to real-estate investment decision-making. A simple equation for doing so is presented. The decision-analysis approach uses the certainty equivalent, CE, as opposed to NAV as the basis for investment decision-making. That is, when faced with multiple investment alternatives, one should choose the alternative that maximizes CE. It is shown that CE is less than the expected value of NAV by an amount proportional to the variance of NAV and the inverse of the decision-maker's risk tolerance, [rho]. The procedure for establishing NAV and CE is illustrated in parallel demonstrations by CUREE and Kajima research teams. The CUREE demonstration is performed using a real 1960s-era hotel building in Van Nuys, California. The building, a 7-story non-ductile reinforced-concrete moment-frame building, is analyzed using the assembly-based vulnerability (ABV) method, developed in Phase III of the CUREE-Kajima Joint Research Program. The building is analyzed three ways: in its condition prior to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, with a hypothetical shearwall upgrade, and with earthquake insurance. This is the first application of ABV to a real building, and the first time ABV has incorporated stochastic structural analyses that consider uncertainties in the mass, damping, and force-deformation behavior of the structure, along with uncertainties in ground motion, component damageability, and repair costs. New fragility functions are developed for the reinforced concrete flexural members using published laboratory test data, and new unit repair costs for these components are developed by a professional construction cost estimator. Four investment alternatives are considered: do not buy; buy; buy and retrofit; and buy and insure. It is found that the best alternative for most reasonable values of discount rate, risk tolerance, and market risk is to buy and leave the building as-is. However, risk tolerance and market risk (variability of income) both materially affect the decision. That is, for certain ranges of each parameter, the best investment alternative changes. This indicates that expected-value decision-making is inappropriate for some decision-makers and investment opportunities. It is also found that the majority of the economic seismic risk results from shaking of S[subscript a] < 0.3g, i.e., shaking with return periods on the order of 50 to 100 yr that cause primarily architectural damage, rather than from the strong, rare events of which common probable maximum loss (PML) measurements are indicative. The Kajima demonstration is performed using three Tokyo buildings. A nine-story, steel-reinforced-concrete building built in 1961 is analyzed as two designs: as-is, and with a steel-braced-frame structural upgrade. The third building is 29-story, 1999 steel-frame structure. The three buildings are intended to meet collapse-prevention, life-safety, and operational performance levels, respectively, in shaking with 10%exceedance probability in 50 years. The buildings are assessed using levels 2 and 3 of Kajima's three-level analysis methodology. These are semi-assembly based approaches, which subdivide a building into categories of components, estimate the loss of these component categories for given ground motions, and combine the losses for the entire building. The two methods are used to estimate annualized losses and to create curves that relate loss to exceedance probability. The results are incorporated in the input to a sophisticated program developed by the Kajima Corporation, called Kajima D, which forecasts cash flows for office, retail, and residential projects for purposes of property screening, due diligence, negotiation, financial structuring, and strategic planning. The result is an estimate of NAV for each building. A parametric study of CE for each building is presented, along with a simplified model for calculating CE as a function of mean NAV and coefficient of variation of NAV. The equation agrees with that developed in parallel by the CUREE team. Both the CUREE and Kajima teams collaborated with a number of real-estate investors to understand their seismic risk-management practices, and to formulate and to assess the viability of the proposed decision-making methodologies. Investors were interviewed to elicit their risk-tolerance, r, using scripts developed and presented here in English and Japanese. Results of 10 such interviews are presented, which show that a strong relationship exists between a decision-maker's annual revenue, R, and his or her risk tolerance, [rho is approximately equal to] 0.0075R[superscript 1.34]. The interviews show that earthquake risk is a marginal consideration in current investment practice. Probable maximum loss (PML) is the only earthquake risk parameter these investors consider, and they typically do not use seismic risk at all in their financial analysis of an investment opportunity. For competitive reasons, a public investor interviewed here would not wish to account for seismic risk in his financial analysis unless rating agencies required him to do so or such consideration otherwise became standard practice. However, in cases where seismic risk is high enough to significantly reduce return, a private investor expressed the desire to account for seismic risk via expected annualized loss (EAL) if it were inexpensive to do so, i.e., if the cost of calculating the EAL were not substantially greater than that of PML alone. The study results point to a number of interesting opportunities for future research, namely: improve the market-risk stochastic model, including comparison of actual long-term income with initial income projections; improve the risk-attitude interview; account for uncertainties in repair method and in the relationship between repair cost and loss; relate the damage state of structural elements with points on the force-deformation relationship; examine simpler dynamic analysis as a means to estimate vulnerability; examine the relationship between simplified engineering demand parameters and performance; enhance category-based vulnerability functions by compiling a library of building-specific ones; and work with lenders and real-estate industry analysts to determine the conditions under which seismic risk should be reflected in investors' financial analyses

Bayesian data driven model for uncertain modal properties identified from operational modal analysis

In structural health monitoring (SHM), ‘data driven models’ are often applied to investigate the relationship between the dynamic properties of a structure and environmental/operational conditions. Dynamic properties and environmental/operational conditions may not be directly measured but are rather inferred based on measured structural response data. Conventional data driven models assume training data as precise values without uncertainty, but this may not be justified when they are identified by operational modal analysis (OMA) where identification uncertainty can be significant. The associated confidence or precision may also vary depending on their identification uncertainties. This paper develops a Bayesian data driven model for modal properties identified from OMA. Identification uncertainty is incorporated fundamentally through the posterior distribution of modal properties of interest given the ambient vibration measurements. A Gaussian Process model is used for describing the potential unknown relationship between the modal properties and environmental/operational condition, which is subjected to OMA identification uncertainty. An efficient framework is developed to facilitate computation. The proposed method is validated by synthetic and laboratory data. Typhoon data from two tall buildings illustrates the field application of the proposed method

Logarithmic perturbation theory for quasinormal modes

Logarithmic perturbation theory (LPT) is developed and applied to quasinormal modes (QNMs) in open systems. QNMs often do not form a complete set, so LPT is especially convenient because summation over a complete set of unperturbed states is not required. Attention is paid to potentials with exponential tails, and the example of a Poschl-Teller potential is briefly discussed. A numerical method is developed that handles the exponentially large wavefunctions which appear in dealing with QNMs.Comment: 24 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses ioplppt.sty and epsfig.st