Monitoring of Scour Around Bridge Piers and Abutments

AbstractScour of the riverbeds around bridge supports is the most frequent cause of their failures. Maintenance and repair costs of the bridges damaged by scour effects are significant, but it is estimated that the social costs are five times higher than the direct repair and replacement costs.The bridge supports are subjected to the scour effects due to the erosive action of the flowing water, involving soil loosening from the bottom and the banks of the watercourse. The condition for the proper monitoring of scour is to understand its nature. The knowledge of the phenomena occurring during the high water flow in the area of the bridge supports is crucial to properly assess the current condition and to develop proper maintenance actions.Scour may be the consequence of:•narrowing the watercourse – a natural or man-made, including construction of a bridge,•lateral movement or lowering of the stream bed,•hydraulic works shortening the length of the meandering section of the watercourse,•changes occurring in the catchment area of the watercourse,•other changes in watercourse hydrology.Construction of a bridge in the certain area disturbs natural stream flow conditions, especially the flood water and may change the terms of the normal water flow. The presence of a bridge causes the stream flow cross-section reduction, which increases the speed and intensity of erosion of the streambed. River tends to stabilize its bed in order to restore the natural flow section. Bridge supports also change the laminar water flow and turbulent flow.Scour present around a bridge supports can be monitored by the mobile and fixed devices.Portable scour monitoring devices are mainly: different types of probes such as: sticks, tape or rope with weights and bars used by divers and sonar acoustic measuring devices.Stationary equipment is used for continuous or regular scour monitoring of the bridge supports of the bridge, for example once a day, once a week. They are stationary devices including various types of robotic probes and stationary hydroacoustic measurement systems. Stationary device can be installed on a support or near the bridge, usually at the head of the pillar, or in the ground near the bottom of the watercourse. It should be installed near the site of the anticipated greatest scour. The device interacts with the data logger, which can be read on the site or transmitted to a remote control unit.The article presents the principles of scour monitoring near the bridge supports, developed during the project “Monitoring system for bridge supports and their surrounding areas” co-founded by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development under the program Innotech. During the project monitoring system for bridge supports was developed with specialized software for online data visualization. The article presents selected measurement results from the sonar measurements

Humanistyka i egzystencja, czyli dlaczego zajmujemy się literaturą?

HUMANITIES AND THE HUMAN EXISTENCE OR WHY DO WE DEAL WITH LITERATURE?The article tries to answer the question concerning the causes and reasons why we deal with literature at all and it also tries to defi ne the status of literary studies themselves (including Polish studies); at the same time, the author of the article argues that literary studies as an autonomous discipline of knowledge, possessing its own, separate language and isolated, precisely defi ned subject-matter of research, does not really exist. He points out to the relativity and arbitrariness of the boundaries marking out the division of the total area of human knowledge into individual disciplines, and draws attention to the institutional division of the university into subject areas, faculties or departments. According to the author, the real goal of Polish studies should be the “shaping of human sensitivity and imagination”, “renewing existence through broadening the space of our own life” and constructing refreshing cognitive fictions that allow us to understand the world and ourselves anew

Osobliwym gawędom nie ma końca (Adamowi Lipszycowi w odpowiedzi)

No end to weird narratives In his polemic with the author of ‘Powszechna rozwiązłość: Schulz, egzystencja, literatura’, Adam Lipszyc defended a messianic interpretation of Schulz’s work, rejected by Markowski wholesale as based on insufficient textual evidence. According to Markowski all attempts at in scribing Schulz in the messianic tradition, no matter how defined, must fail because they do not acknowledge a parodic and ironic dimension of Schulz’s worldview, which ruins any serious access to religious thinking of which messianism is a clear exampl

Ground fortifications in the development of the park behind the marine school in Darłowo

The article presents problems related with designing public space, i.e. recreational areas and park green space in the context of existing fortifications with a case study of the town of Darłowo. It shows examples of the development of historical areas of ground fortifications as part of the project ‘A Plan of Development of the Park Behind the Marine School in Darłowo’. The article also discusses selected issues related with the composition, spatial functionality, landscape and execution of the plan, included in the park design documentation. It presents the results of design work, which was used to prepare complex technical documentation. This study includes the arrangements thatcan be used to make a town park with scenic values which will be similar a natural scenery.W artykule przedstawiono zagadnienia związane z projektowaniem przestrzeni publicznych tj. trenów rekreacji i zieleni parkowej w kontekście istniejących fortyfikacji na przykładzie miasta Darłowa. Zaprezentowano przykładowe propozycje zagospodarowania obszarów historycznych fortyfikacji ziemnych w ramach opracowania realizacyjnego pt. Projekt zagospodarowania Parku za Szkołą Morską w Darłowie. Omówiono również wybrane zagadnienia kompozycyjne, funkcjonalno-przestrzenne, krajobrazowe i realizacyjne zawarte w dokumentacji projektowej parku. Przedstawiono wyniki prac projektowych, na postawie których przygotowano kompleksową dokumentacje techniczną. W opracowaniu zawarto ustalenia, na podstawie których istnieje możliwość zrealizowania parku miejskiego o zbliżonych, do naturalnych walorach krajobrazowych

Lead shielding efficiency from the gamma background measurements in the salt cavern of the Polkowice–Sieroszowice copper mine

The studies of lead shielding efficiency from the gamma background measurements were performed in the salt cavern of the copper mine - a site considered for an underground laboratory. Within the energy range of 50–2700 keV, the measured gamma-ray count rates normalized to the mass of the high-purity detectors germanium crystal are 5.93 and 6.32 s−1kg−1 for the used low-background and portable spectrometers, respectively. The gamma-ray flux of 0.124 (2) cm−2s−1 connected with the natural radioisotopes was observed by the portable HPGe, including 0.026 (1) cm−2s−1 contribution of radon decay products, whereas the photon flux at the spectrum continuum was 0.18 (5) cm−2s−1

ROZMOWA „WIELOGŁOSU”

O literaturoznawczym profesjonalizmie, etyce badacza i kłopotach z terminologią rozmawiają prof. Teresa Walas, prof. Henryk Markiewicz, prof. Michał Paweł Markowski, prof. Ryszard Nycz i dr Tomasz Kun