L’aménagement des berges, ravins et monts urbains dans la conurbation du Haut-Saguenay : vers un espace plus fonctionnel

La croissance généralisée des densités urbaines dans le Québec méridional, l'inadéquation observée entre les qualités réelles des sites urbanisés et la nature des tissus urbains, la diminution progressive de l'espace vital à l'intérieur des périmètres urbanisés, l'utilisation anarchique des corridors interurbains et la dépendance accrue des schémas d'aménagement vis-à-vis de la circulation automobile constituent quelques-uns des principaux problèmes retenus dans l'analyse spatiale des processus d'urbanisation au Québec.Cet article présente le cas de la « conurbation du Haut-Saguenay », la troisième plus importante région urbanisée du Québec après Québec et Montréal. Les auteurs essaient de mesurer le taux de dégradation de ce site urbain et de déterminer la nature des correctifs qui seront nécessaires à la création d'un milieu de vie plus humain.Some of the main elements which have to be analysed when transforming cities spatially or creating new urban bodies are: the expansion of urban densities in the Southern Québec regions, the discrepancies between the qualities of urbanized areas and the nature of urban organization and structure, the slow reduction of vital space within cities, the anarchical uses of interurban corridors and the growing influence of the automobile on urban planning.In this article, which is concerned with the case of the « conurbation du Haut-Saguenay », one of the most important regions of Québec, the authors attempt to measure the state of deterioration of this urban territory and also to determine what transformations will be necessary in order to create a more humanized environment

Boundary effect on weight function in nonlocal damage model

International audienceSome insights on boundary effects in nonlocal damage modelling are addressed. Interaction stresses that are at the origin of nonlocality are expected to vanish at the boundary of a solid, in the normal direction to this boundary. Existing models do not account for such an effect. We introduce tentative modifications of the classical nonlocal damage model aimed at accounting for this boundary layer effect in a continuum modelling setting. Computations show that some nonnegligible differences may be observed between the classical and modified formulations. In a one dimensional spalling test, only the modified formulation provides a spall of finite nonzero thickness, whereas spalls smaller than the internal length cannot be obtained according to the original formulation. For the same set of model parameters, including the internal length, the fracture energy derived from the size effect test method is also very different according to both approaches. Parameters in the size effect laws for notched and unnotched specimens, obtained from computation of geometrically similar bending beams, are more consistent with the modified nonlocal model compared to the original nonlocal formulation

Extraction of a crack opening from a continuous approach using regularized damage models

Crack opening governs many transfer properties that play a pivotal role in durability analyses. Instead of trying to combine continuum and discrete models in computational analyses, it would be attractive to derive from the continuum approach an estimate of crack opening, without considering the explicit description of a discontinuous displacement field in the computational model. This is the prime objective of this contribution. The derivation is based on the comparison between two continuous variables: the distribution if the effective non local strain that controls damage and an analytical distribution of the effective non local variable that derives from a strong discontinuity analysis. Close to complete failure, these distributions should be very close to each other. Their comparison provides two quantities: the displacement jump across the crack [U] and the distance between the two profiles. This distance is an error indicator defining how close the damage distribution is from that corresponding to a crack surrounded by a fracture process zone. It may subsequently serve in continuous/discrete models in order to define the threshold below which the continuum approach is close enough to the discrete one in order to switch descriptions. The estimation of the crack opening is illustrated on a one-dimensional example and the error between the profiles issued from discontinuous and FE analyses is found to be of a few percents close to complete failure

Estimation of crack opening from a two-dimensional continuum-based finite element computation

Damage models are capable of representing crack initiation and mimicking crack propagation within a continuum framework. Thus, in principle, they do not describe crack openings. In durability analyses of concrete structures however, transfer properties are a key issue controlled by crack propagation and crack opening. We extend here a one dimensional approach for estimating a crack opening from a continuum based fi nite element calculation to two dimensional cases. The technique operates in the case of mode I cracking described in a continuum setting by a nonlocal isotropic damage model. We used the global tracking method to compute the idealized crack location as a post treatment procedure. The orig inal one dimensional problem devised in Dufour et al . [4] is recovered as pro fi les of deformation orthog onal to the idealized crack direction are computed. An estimate of the crack opening and an error indicator are computed by comparing fi nite element deformation pro fi les and theoretical pro fi les corresponding to a displacement discontinuity. Two estimates have been considered: In the strong approach, the maxima of the pro fi les are assumed to be equal; in the weak approach, the integrals of each pro fi le are set equal. Two dimensional numerical calculations show that the weak estimates perform better than do the strong ones. Error indicators, de fi ned as the distance between the numerical and theoretical pro fi les, are less than a few percentages. In the case of a three point bending, test results are in good agreement with experimental data, with an error lower than 10% for widely opened crack ( > 40 m m

Estimation of crack opening from a two-dimensional continuum-based finite element computation

International audienceDamage models are capable of representing crack initiation and mimicking crack propagation within a continuum framework. Thus, in principle, they do not describe crack openings. In durability analyses of concrete structures however, transfer properties are a key issue controlled by crack propagation and crack opening. We extend here a one-dimensional approach for estimating a crack opening from a continuum-based finite element calculation to two-dimensional cases. The technique operates in the case of mode I cracking described in a continuum setting by a nonlocal isotropic damage model. We used the global tracking method to compute the idealized crack location as a post-treatment procedure. The original one-dimensional problem devised in Dufour et al. [4] is recovered as profiles of deformation orthogonal to the idealized crack direction are computed. An estimate of the crack opening and an error indicator are computed by comparing finite element deformation profiles and theoretical profiles corresponding to a displacement discontinuity. Two estimates have been considered: In the strong approach, the maxima of the profiles are assumed to be equal; in the weak approach, the integrals of each profile are set equal. Two-dimensional numerical calculations show that the weak estimates perform better than do the strong ones. Error indicators, defined as the distance between the numerical and theoretical profiles, are less than a few percentages. In the case of a three-point bending, test results are in good agreement with experimental data, with an error lower than 10% for widely opened crack (>40μm)

GeoQAIR : Quantification de l'apport d'une plateforme d'observations Géostationnaires pour la surveillance de la Qualité de l'AIR en Europe

Monitoring of air quality (AQ) and its transport at the continental scale, as well as the development of efficient forecast systems for air quality is one of the issues included in the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) European Programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation. The availability of satellite instruments which have the ability to monitor tropospheric ozone in the lowermost troposphere would be a step forward for this system. To monitor small scale and short term processes as involved in pollution event development, a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) observing system is particularly well adapted. Future GEO missions dedicated to air quality monitoring using thermal infrared (TIR) instruments are planned to be operating over the USA, Japan and Korea, while existing and planned missions over Europe are not well adapted for this task. One of the objectives of the GeoQAIR project is to evaluate different satellite instrument concepts for their ability to monitor AQ and in particular quantify the possible impact for AQ forecasting. Four instruments have been considered for this study: the existing instrument IASI on MetOp-A (Low Earth Orbit - LEO - mission), the planned IASI-NG on the EPS-SG platform (LEO mission) and IRS on Sentinel4/MTG platform (GEO mission mainly dedicated to meteorology) and a new GEO mission concept, MAGEAQ, dedicated to AQ monitoring and proposed at the last Earth Explorer 8 call of ESA. Pseudo-observations for the four instruments have been generated to simulate one month of ozone observations over Europe. About 45 millions of individual measurements have been simulated using the EGI facilities. A first analysis of the performances of the different instruments to measure ozone in the lowermost troposphere demonstrates that the short time and space scale processes implied in air pollution development will not be correctly apprehended with the current existing and planned missions. Dedicated instrument with sufficient spectral resolution and signal to noise ratio, as proposed within the MAGEAQ mission concept, are necessary to correctly represent these processes

Hepatitis C: a changing epidemic.

Approximately 3% of the world population is estimated to have a chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and 500,000 individuals die from its consequences yearly. Persons who inject drugs (PWID) bear the majority of the disease burden in high-income countries. Drug substitution programmes have helped reduce HCV transmissions among PWID. However, recent epidemics of sexually transmitted HCV infections in HIV-infected men who have sex with men demonstrated the changing nature of the HCV epidemic. HCV therapy is undergoing a revolution, as new interferon-free, oral treatments eradicate HCV infections in almost all treated patients. As a consequence, the eradication of HCV has become a matter of debate and is becoming an important future public health target. However, for this to be achieved, many challenges need to be addressed, including the poor uptake of HCV testing, the high cost of the new antiviral combinations and the high frequency of re-infections after treatment in some populations

Estimation of crack opening from a two-dimensional continuum-based finite element computation

Damage models are capable of representing crack initiation and mimicking crack propagation within a continuum framework. Thus, in principle, they do not describe crack openings. In durability analyses of concrete structures however, transfer properties are a key issue controlled by crack propagation and crack opening. We extend here a one dimensional approach for estimating a crack opening from a continuum based fi nite element calculation to two dimensional cases. The technique operates in the case of mode I cracking described in a continuum setting by a nonlocal isotropic damage model. We used the global tracking method to compute the idealized crack location as a post treatment procedure. The orig inal one dimensional problem devised in Dufour et al . [4] is recovered as pro fi les of deformation orthog onal to the idealized crack direction are computed. An estimate of the crack opening and an error indicator are computed by comparing fi nite element deformation pro fi les and theoretical pro fi les corresponding to a displacement discontinuity. Two estimates have been considered: In the strong approach, the maxima of the pro fi les are assumed to be equal; in the weak approach, the integrals of each pro fi le are set equal. Two dimensional numerical calculations show that the weak estimates perform better than do the strong ones. Error indicators, de fi ned as the distance between the numerical and theoretical pro fi les, are less than a few percentages. In the case of a three point bending, test results are in good agreement with experimental data, with an error lower than 10% for widely opened crack ( > 40 m m )Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft