Risques d'effondrement de carrières souterraines en milieu urbain. De la prévention à la mise en sécurité. Exemple de l'îlot St-Julien à Laon (02)

National audienceSince the autumn 2001 the city of Laon has of a Plan of Prévention of the Predictable Natural Risks concerning potential ground instabilities. The risk of collapse is connected to the présence of abandoned underground cavities located in lutetian limestones constituting the upper hard level of Laon's hillock. In the "St - Julien" district, the historical town centre, the Municipal Service of the Careers noticed disorders with evolutionary character affecting the buildings at ground level and the corresponding underground works . A geotechnical analysis established that the origin of thèse disorders is directly linked with the failure of galleries excavated in the levels of glauconian sands situated at the base of the calcareous benches. In order to garanty the security of people and structures in surface, one has to proceed to the treatment of the subsoil by privileging the backfilling of the cavities at the origin of the disorders. However thèse works take on a particular technical character because of the urban environment, especially the présence in galleries to be treated of a thick layer of anthropological organic matter (these galleries having been used until recently as septic tanks) more or less solidified and probably very compressible. Several solutions were studied to operate a consolidation of galleries by concrète injection in several phases, by considering that the layer of excréments has a capacity of consolidation comparable to a peat. Then, the galleries of the upper levels can, according to their state of dégradation, either be backfilled with expansive resin foam, or Consolidated (masonries, hoopings ...), so as to be reused.La Ville de LAON (Département de l'Aisne) dispose depuis l'automne 2001 d'un Plan de Prévention des Risques naturels prévisibles (PPR) relatif aux mouvements de terrain. Le risque d'effondrement est lié à la présence de cavités souterraines abandonnées situées dans les calcaires lutétiens constituant l'entablement de la butte de LAON. Dans le quartier dit " Saint-Julien " situé en plein centre ville historique, le Service Municipal des Carrières a pu constater des désordres à caractère évolutif affectant les bâtiments de surface et les ouvrages souterrains correspondants. Une analyse géotechnique a établi que l'origine de ces désordres est directement imputable à la ruine de galeries creusées dans les niveaux de sables glauconieux constituant l'assise des bancs calcaires. Il convient donc, pour assurer la sécurité des personnes et des biens en surface, de procéder au traitement du sous-sol en privilégiant le remblayage de ces cavités à l'origine des désordres. Ces travaux présentent cependant un caractère technique particulier lié à l'environnement urbain mais surtout à l'existence dans les galeries à traiter d'une couche épaisse de matière organique anthropique (ces galeries ayant servi jusqu'à récemment de fosses septiques) plus ou moins solidifiée et probablement très compressible. Plusieurs solutions ont été étudiées pour mettre en oeuvre une consolidation des galeries par injection de béton en plusieurs phases, en considérant que la couche d'excréments possède une capacité de consolidation comparable à une tourbe. Dans un deuxième temps, les galeries des niveaux supérieurs pourront, en fonction de leur état de dégradation, soit être remblayées à l'aide de mousse de résine expansive, soit confortées (maçonneries, cerclages...), de façon à être réutilisées

A New Embedded Measurement Structure for eDRAM Capacitor

Submitted on behalf of EDAA (http://www.edaa.com/)International audienceThe embedded DRAM (eDRAM) is more and more used in System On Chip (SOC). The integration of the DRAM capacitor process into a logic process is challenging to get satisfactory yields. The specific process of DRAM capacitor and the low capacitance value (~30F) of this device induce problems of process monitoring and failure analysis. We propose a new test structure to measure the capacitance value of each DRAM cell capacitor in a DRAM array. This concept has been validated by simulation on a 0.18µm eDRAM technology

Local Symmetries and Order-Disorder Transitions in Small Macroscopic Wigner Islands

The influence of local order on the disordering scenario of small Wigner islands is discussed. A first disordering step is put in evidence by the time correlation functions and is linked to individual excitations resulting in configuration transitions, which are very sensitive to the local symmetries. This is followed by two other transitions, corresponding to orthoradial and radial diffusion, for which both individual and collective excitations play a significant role. Finally, we show that, contrary to large systems, the focus that is commonly made on collective excitations for such small systems through the Lindemann criterion has to be made carefully in order to clearly identify the relative contributions in the whole disordering process.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Agronomic and environmental impacts of a single application of heat-dried sludge on an Alfisol

A field experiment was conducted on Alfisols in South-West France to assess the agronomic and environmental impacts of a single application of heat-dried sludge pellets at 11.1 Mg dry matter ha-1. The sludge pellets, with a moisture level of 9.5%, were spread on an irrigated crop of maize (Zea mays L.). This treatment was compared with inorganic fertilization (urea and diammonium phosphate mixed with KCl). Soil properties, yield and the composition of maize and the quality of drained water were monitored over 1 year to detect any changes resulting from sludge application. Amongst several determined soil properties, only two were significantly modified by the sludge application: The nitric nitrogen stock of the soil was higher in the inorganic fertilized plot, whereas Olsen-P soil content was higher in the sludge-amended plot. Agronomic recovery rates of N and P added by sludge were high: For the first crop following application, total amounts of N and P supplied by the sludge had the same efficiency as approximately 45% of the N and P amounts supplied by inorganic fertilizer. This ratio was 7% for the N uptake by the second maize crop. The quality and quantity of maize were equally good with both types of fertilization. During the 2 years following sludge spreading, N leaching remained as low in the sludged plot as in the inorganically fertilized one. The Cu, Zn, Cr, Cd, Pb and Ni composition of the drainage water was affected by neither of the types of amendment. From the heavy-metal contents of the soil, water and maize monitored over 1 year in the field experiment and from literature data for cow manure and atmospheric emissions, a theoretical balance between crop soil heavy-metal input and output over one century was drawn up. The long-term impact of cow manure on Zn, Ni and Cr in soil is higher than that of the studied heat-dried sludge. Obviously, sludge tended to cause a strong increase in soil Cu storage, valued for these soils, which are otherwise very Cu deficient

Computation of dynamical correlation functions of Heisenberg chains in a field

We compute the momentum- and frequency-dependent longitudinal spin structure factor for the one-dimensional spin-1/2 $XXZ$ Heisenberg spin chain in a magnetic field, using exact determinant representations for form factors on the lattice. Multiparticle contributions are computed numerically throughout the Brillouin zone, yielding saturation of the sum rule to high precision.Comment: 4 pages, 14 figure

Star formation in the giant HII regions of M101

The molecular components of three giant HII regions (NGC 5461, NGC 5462, NGC 5471) in the galaxy M101 are investigated with new observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, the NRAO 12-meter, and the Owens Valley millimeter array. Of the three HII regions, only NGC 5461 had previously been detected in CO emission. We calculate preliminary values for the molecular mass of the GMCs in NGC 5461 by assuming a CO-to-H_2 factor (X factor) and then compare these values with the virial masses. We conclude that the data in this paper demonstrate for the first time that the value of X may decrease in regions with intense star formation. The molecular mass for the association of clouds in NGC 5461 is approximately 3x10^7 Mo and is accompanied by 1-2 times as much atomic mass. The observed CO emission in NGC 5461 is an order of magnitude stronger than in NGC 5462, while it was not possible to detect molecular gas toward NGC 5471 with the JCMT. An even larger ratio of atomic to molecular gas in NGC 5471 was observed, which might be attributed to efficient conversion of molecular to atomic gas. The masses of the individual clouds in NGC 5461, which are gravitationally bound, cover a range of (2-8) x 10^5 Mo, comparable with the masses of Galactic giant molecular clouds (GMCs). Higher star forming efficiencies, and not massive clouds, appear to be the prerequisite for the formation of the large number of stars whose radiation is required to produce the giant HII regions in M101.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa