Sedimentological characteristics and aeolian architecture of a plausible intermountain erg system in Southeast China during the Late Cretaceous

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2475-2488
Author(s):  
Shuo Cao ◽  
Laiming Zhang ◽  
Chengshan Wang ◽  
Jing Ma ◽  
Jie Tan ◽  
...  

Abstract Along with intensification of global warming, severe desertification has already impaired human sustainable development. In a near-future greenhouse world, the total area of desert will increase, and new types of desert may emerge. During the “greenhouse” Cretaceous, conventional large paleo-ergs developed in broad topographic basins, and many possible ergs developed in small-scale intermountain basins, which are unusual in near-modern times and less studied. A comprehensive study of their sedimentary architecture and mechanisms would refine our interpretation of desertification in a near-future “greenhouse” world. The Xinjiang Basin is a typical small-scale intermountain basin in Southeast China that formed >300 m of successive aeolian deposits during the early Late Cretaceous. In this study, we applied detailed facies and architecture analyses to the Tangbian Formation (K2t) in 16 outcrops throughout the Xinjiang Basin and reconstructed a three-dimensional sedimentary model for the intermountain ergs. We confirmed that the Tangbian Formation formed in a typical intermountain paleo-erg and summarized in detail the differences in sedimentary architecture between intermountain ergs and broad topographic ergs. We noticed that the “greenhouse” state during the Late Cretaceous seems to have been suitable for the development of ergs in intermountain basins due to the hot, arid climate conditions and penetrating winds with sufficient transport capacity. Therefore, we suggest that in addition to the ongoing expansion of broad topographic ergs, the emergence and development of intermountain ergs in a near-future “greenhouse” world would also contribute to global desert expansion and massive desertification.

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (42) ◽  
pp. 4991-5008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed S. Algahtani ◽  
Abdul Aleem Mohammed ◽  
Javed Ahmad

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) has a significant impact on organ transplant, cosmetic surgery, surgical planning, prosthetics and other medical fields. Recently, 3 DP attracted the attention as a promising method for the production of small-scale drug production. The knowledge expansion about the population differences in metabolism and genetics grows the need for personalised medicine substantially. In personalised medicine, the patient receives a tailored dose and the release profile is based on his pharmacokinetics data. 3 DP is expected to be one of the leading solutions for the personalisation of the drug dispensing. This technology can fabricate a drug-device with complicated geometries and fillings to obtain the needed drug release profile. The extrusionbased 3 DP is the most explored method for investigating the feasibility of the technology to produce a novel dosage form with properties that are difficult to achieve using the conventional industrial methods. Extrusionbased 3 DP is divided into two techniques, the semi-solid extrusion (SSE) and the fused deposition modeling (FDM). This review aims to explain the extrusion principles behind the two techniques and discuss their capabilities to fabricate novel dosage forms. The advantages and limitations observed through the application of SSE and FDM for fabrication of drug dosage forms were discussed in this review. Further exploration and development are required to implement this technology in the healthcare frontline for more effective and personalised treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Yan ◽  
Chun-lian Wang ◽  
Steffen Mischke ◽  
Jiu-yi Wang ◽  
Li-jian Shen ◽  
...  

AbstractMajor, trace and rare earth element (REE) geochemistry of the late Cretaceous lower Zhoutian Formation from the Jitai Basin of Southeast China were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis to infer the provenance of the sediments and to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate. The wide range of Sr/Cu ratios point to a fluctuating palaeoclimate, and the negative correlation between the FeO/MnO and Al2O3/MgO ratios and the Sr/Cu ratio indicates that the late Cretaceous climate during the lower Zhoutian Formation in the Jitai Basin can be divided into two parts. The lower part experienced two cooling periods, whilst the upper part was dominated by warm-humid climate. Mostly corresponding trends of the B/Ga, Sr/Ba and Sr/Cu ratios show that the salinity changed consistently with the late Cretaceous climate during the lower Zhoutian Formation in the Jitai Basin. During the lower part, the salinity changed from salt water to fresh/brackish water. In the upper part, water was mainly fresh/brackish, and there were many changes from fresh/brackish water to salt water. The relatively stable Ni/Co, V/Cr, V/(V + Ni) and Ce/Ce* data indicate a long period of oxic conditions. The La-Th-Sc, Th-Sc-Zr/10 and La/Th-Hf data of the silt- and sandstones of the lower Zhoutian Formation show that its provenance was mainly a mixture of felsic upper crust sediments and older sedimentary rocks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 585
Author(s):  
Minghao Wu ◽  
Leen De Vos ◽  
Carlos Emilio Arboleda Chavez ◽  
Vasiliki Stratigaki ◽  
Maximilian Streicher ◽  
...  

The present work introduces an analysis of the measurement and model effects that exist in monopile scour protection experiments with repeated small scale tests. The damage erosion is calculated using the three dimensional global damage number S3D and subarea damage number S3D,i. Results show that the standard deviation of the global damage number σ(S3D)=0.257 and is approximately 20% of the mean S3D, and the standard deviation of the subarea damage number σ(S3D,i)=0.42 which can be up to 33% of the mean S3D. The irreproducible maximum wave height, chaotic flow field and non-repeatable armour layer construction are regarded as the main reasons for the occurrence of strong model effects. The measurement effects are limited to σ(S3D)=0.039 and σ(S3D,i)=0.083, which are minor compared to the model effects.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 416
Author(s):  
Barbara Jagosz ◽  
Stanisław Rolbiecki ◽  
Roman Rolbiecki ◽  
Ariel Łangowski ◽  
Hicran A. Sadan ◽  
...  

Climate warming increases the water needs of plants. The aim of this study was to estimate the water needs of grapevines in central Poland. Water needs were calculated using the crop coefficients method. Reference evapotranspiration was assessed by the Blaney–Criddle’s equation, modified for climate conditions in Poland. Crop coefficients were assumed according to the Doorenbos and Pruitt method. Water needs were calculated using the data from four meteorological stations. Rainfall deficit with the probability occurrence of normal years, medium dry years, and very dry years was determined by the Ostromęcki’s method. Water needs of grapevines during the average growing season were estimated at 438 mm. Upward time trend in the water needs both in the period of May–October and June–August was estimated. Temporal variability in the water needs was significant for all of the provinces. These changes were mainly impacted by a significant increasing tendency in mean air temperature and less by precipitation totals that did not show a clear changing tendency. Due to climate change, vineyards will require irrigation in the near future. The use of resource-efficient irrigation requires a precise estimate of the grapevines’ water needs. The study identified the water requirements for grapevines in central Poland.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Xin Wan ◽  
Ximing Liu ◽  
Jichen Miao ◽  
Peng Cong ◽  
Yuai Zhang ◽  
...  

Pebble dynamics is important for the safe operation of pebble-bed high temperature gas-cooled reactors and is a complicated problem of great concern. To investigate it more authentically, a computed tomography pebble flow detecting (CT-PFD) system has been constructed, in which a three-dimensional model is simulated according to the ratio of 1 : 5 with the core of HTR-PM. A multislice helical CT is utilized to acquire the reconstructed cross-sectional images of simulated pebbles, among which special tracer pebbles are designed to indicate pebble flow. Tracer pebbles can be recognized from many other background pebbles because of their heavy kernels that can be resolved in CT images. The detecting principle and design parameters of the system were demonstrated by a verification experiment on an existing CT system in this paper. Algorithms to automatically locate the three-dimensional coordinates of tracer pebbles and to rebuild the trajectory of each tracer pebble were presented and verified. The proposed pebble-detecting and tracking technique described in this paper will be implemented in the near future.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2338
Author(s):  
Sofia Agostinelli ◽  
Fabrizio Cumo ◽  
Giambattista Guidi ◽  
Claudio Tomazzoli

The research explores the potential of digital-twin-based methods and approaches aimed at achieving an intelligent optimization and automation system for energy management of a residential district through the use of three-dimensional data model integrated with Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The case study is focused on Rinascimento III in Rome, an area consisting of 16 eight-floor buildings with 216 apartment units powered by 70% of self-renewable energy. The combined use of integrated dynamic analysis algorithms has allowed the evaluation of different scenarios of energy efficiency intervention aimed at achieving a virtuous energy management of the complex, keeping the actual internal comfort and climate conditions. Meanwhile, the objective is also to plan and deploy a cost-effective IT (information technology) infrastructure able to provide reliable data using edge-computing paradigm. Therefore, the developed methodology led to the evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of integrative systems for renewable energy production from solar energy necessary to raise the threshold of self-produced energy, meeting the nZEB (near zero energy buildings) requirements.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Carlo Alberto Niccolini Marmont Du Haut Champ ◽  
Fabrizio Stefani ◽  
Paolo Silvestri

The aim of the present research is to characterize both experimentally and numerically journal bearings with low radial clearances for rotors in small-scale applications (e.g., microgas turbines); their diameter is in the order of ten millimetres, leading to very small dimensional clearances when the typical relative ones (order of 1/1000) are employed; investigating this particular class of journal bearings under static and dynamic loading conditions represents something unexplored. To this goal, a suitable test rig was designed and the performance of its bearings was investigated under steady load. For the sake of comparison, numerical simulations of the lubrication were also performed by means of a simplified model. The original test rig adopted is a commercial rotor kit (RK), but substantial modifications were carried out in order to allow significant measurements. Indeed, the relative radial clearance of RK4 RK bearings is about 2/100, while it is around 1/1000 in industrial bearings. Therefore, the same original RK bearings are employed in this new test rig, but a new shaft was designed to reduce their original clearance. The new custom shaft allows to study bearing behaviour for different clearances, since it is equipped with interchangeable journals. Experimental data obtained by this test rig are then compared with further results of more sophisticated simulations. They were carried out by means of an in-house developed finite element (FEM) code, suitable for thermoelasto-hydrodynamic (TEHD) analysis of journal bearings both in static and dynamic conditions. In this paper, bearing static performances are studied to assess the reliability of the experimental journal location predictions by comparing them with the ones coming from already validated numerical codes. Such comparisons are presented both for large and small clearance bearings of original and modified RKs, respectively. Good agreement is found only for the modified RK equipped with small clearance bearings (relative radial clearance 8/1000), as expected. In comparison with two-dimensional lubrication analysis, three-dimensional simulation improves prediction of journal location and correlation with experimental results.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 4531-4545 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Zhu ◽  
C. L. Winter ◽  
Z. Wang

Abstract. Computational experiments are performed to evaluate the effects of locally heterogeneous conductivity fields on regional exchanges of water between stream and aquifer systems in the Middle Heihe River basin (MHRB) of northwestern China. The effects are found to be nonlinear in the sense that simulated discharges from aquifers to streams are systematically lower than discharges produced by a base model parameterized with relatively coarse effective conductivity. A similar, but weaker, effect is observed for stream leakage. The study is organized around three hypotheses: (H1) small-scale spatial variations of conductivity significantly affect regional exchanges of water between streams and aquifers in river basins, (H2) aggregating small-scale heterogeneities into regional effective parameters systematically biases estimates of stream–aquifer exchanges, and (H3) the biases result from slow paths in groundwater flow that emerge due to small-scale heterogeneities. The hypotheses are evaluated by comparing stream–aquifer fluxes produced by the base model to fluxes simulated using realizations of the MHRB characterized by local (grid-scale) heterogeneity. Levels of local heterogeneity are manipulated as control variables by adjusting coefficients of variation. All models are implemented using the MODFLOW (Modular Three-dimensional Finite-difference Groundwater Flow Model) simulation environment, and the PEST (parameter estimation) tool is used to calibrate effective conductivities defined over 16 zones within the MHRB. The effective parameters are also used as expected values to develop lognormally distributed conductivity (K) fields on local grid scales. Stream–aquifer exchanges are simulated with K fields at both scales and then compared. Results show that the effects of small-scale heterogeneities significantly influence exchanges with simulations based on local-scale heterogeneities always producing discharges that are less than those produced by the base model. Although aquifer heterogeneities are uncorrelated at local scales, they appear to induce coherent slow paths in groundwater fluxes that in turn reduce aquifer–stream exchanges. Since surface water–groundwater exchanges are critical hydrologic processes in basin-scale water budgets, these results also have implications for water resources management.


1996 ◽  
Vol 328 ◽  
pp. 345-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. K. Williamson

It is now well-known that the wake transition regime for a circular cylinder involves two modes of small-scale three-dimensional instability (modes A and B), depending on the regime of Reynolds number (Re), although almost no understanding of the physical origins of these instabilities, or indeed their effects on near-wake formation, have hitherto been made clear. We address these questions in this paper. In particular, it is found that the two different modes A and B scale on different physical features of the flow. Mode A has a larger spanwise wavelength of around 3–4 diameters, and scales on the larger physical structure in the flow, namely the primary vortex core. The wavelength for mode A is shown to be the result of an ‘elliptic instability’ in the nearwake vortex cores. The subsequent nonlinear growth of vortex loops is due to a feedback from one vortex to the next, involving spanwise-periodic deformation of core vorticity, which is then subject to streamwise stretching in the braid regios. This mode gives an out-of-phase streamwise vortex pattern.In contrast, mode-B instability has a distinctly smaller wavelength (1 diameter) which scales on the smaller physical structure in the flow, the braid shear layer. It is a manifestation of an instability in a region of hyperbolic flow. It is quite distinct from other shear flows, in that it depends on the reverse flow of the bluff-body wake; the presence of a fully formed streamwise vortex system, brought upstream from a previous half-cycle, in proximity to the newly evolving braid shear layer, leads to an in-phase stream-wise vortex array, in strong analogy with the ‘Mode 1’ of Meiburg & Lasheras (1988) for a forced unseparated wake. In mode B, we also observe amalgamation of streamwise vortices from a previous braid with like-sign vortices in the subsequent braid.It is deduced that the large scatter in previous measurements concerning mode A is due to the presence of vortex dislocations. Dislocations are triggered at the sites of some vortex loops of mode A, and represent a natural breakdown of the periodicity of mode A instability. By minimizing or avoiding the dislocations which occur from end contamination or which occur during wake transition, we find an excellent agreement of both critical Re and spanwise wavelength of mode A with the recent secondary stability analysis of Barkley & Henderson (1996).Wake transition is further characterized by velocity and pressure measurements. It is consistent that, when mode-A instability and large-scale dislocations appear, one finds a reduction of base suction, a reduction of (two-dimensional) Reynolds stress level, a growth in size of the formation region, and a corresponding drop in Strouhal frequency. Finally, the present work leads us to a new clarification of the possible flow states through transition. Right through this regime of Re, there exist two distinct and continuous Strouhal frequency curves: the upper one corresponds with purley small- scale instabilities (e.g. denoted as mode A), while the lower curve corresponds with a combination of small-scale plus dislocation structures (e.g. mode A*). However, some of the flow states are transient or ‘unstable’, and the natural transitioning wake appears to follow the scenario: (2D→A*→B).


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