Silence：True Communication

This paper examines the issue of communication in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. The main characters Gus and Ben are simple characters and their means of communication are the central theme in this play. It shows that even though the two characters interact and talk and discuss, they don’t really communicate. The essence of the difference between just talking and really communicating is analyzed. Key words: Silence, communication Résumé: L’article présent examine le problème de communication dans Le Serveur muet de Harold Pinter. Les personnages principaux Gus et Ben sont des figures simples, et leur sens de communication est le thème central de cette pièce. L’article montre que, bien que les deux personnages s’interagirent, parlent et discutent, ils ne communiquent pas véritablement. L’essence de la différence entre la conversation et la communication est analysée. Mots-Clés: silence, communicatio

Case Study – Ground Failures and Ruptures in Xian City

Xian city, the most well known ancient city of China for her incredible Terra Cotta Warriers and so forth, has been suffered from ground fracture for years. Surface ruptures and faultings encountered in strips all over the city. Hundreds of buildings were severely destroyed and many of them even have been demolished. Ground failures wide-spread and enlarged from time to time, especially right from Tangshan earthquake of July 28, 1976. Therefore serious concerns and suspicious of being associated with major earthquakes have arosed. Thus it has been a problem of both engineering and social influence. Like many other cities in China and even in the world such as Houston, Texas, USA, surface faulting or surface rupture often caused many guess-works and arguments among different engineers, geologists and seismologists. In turn, many projects either underway or co be undertaken will be seriously lagged out due to discrepancies of different assessment and measures of mitigation. The authors have been deeply involved in surface faulting and ruptures as a background for exploring the mechanism and predicting its possible effects from the engineering point of view. In this paper, the authors introduce their systematic ease study on Xian ground failures towards this end, including site investigations, typical damages assessment, numerical analysis on fracture mechanism, model tests in laboratory and comprehensive evaluations etc. Conclusions were drawn not only for this particular ancient city but also provided a referential real ease for the like in the world

Mechanism of Dynamic Consolidation and Its Environmental Effect

This paper is contributed as case histories in ground soil improvement with particular emphasis of dynamic consolidation. The authors try to present as much as they got from the field testings and observations including vibrational parameters, pore pressures, stereoscopic photogrammetry, etc. in order to trace the real behaviour of ground movement during tamping. It is believed that all the data got from the field work are rather informative and illustrative than that from theoretical modelling in the laboratory. Thus, some highlights relating effective thickness of compaction, maximum spacing between compaction points, number of blows for optimum tamping and seismic attenuation for environmental consideration are given

Investigation of Detonative Combustion Characteristics

AbstractThe pressure and deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) characteristics of acetylene and oxygen flame were studied in a detonation tube. The pressure history and the flame velocity along the tube were measured with high frequency pressure transducers and ion probes. By analyzing the data recorded in the experiment, the detonation wave pressure, post-wave pressure and DDT distance were obtained, together with the effects of the initial pressure varying from 2 104 Pa to 105 Pa, equivalence ration from 0.3 to 1.0, and mixture concentration from 60% to 100%. It was found that the detonation pressure was decreased respectively with the decrease of initial pressure, equivalence ratio and mixture concentration, but the DDT distance was enlarged. The DDT distance was found particularly sensitive to mixture concentration