Influences of Spillway Section Morphologies on Landslide Dam Breaching

Spillway excavation is often adopted as a precautionary engineering measure for disaster mitigation before landslide dam breaching. Based on the landslide dam breach mechanisms, this paper focuses on developing a numerical model to comprehensively discuss the issue based on three documented landslide dam failures, such as Tangjiashan, Xiaogangjian, and Baige landslide dams. The spillway cross section morphologies were modeled with different sizes under common shape (i.e., an inverted trapezoid) and slope conditions. The influence of cross section on dam breach processes was analyzed under conditions of different depth, bottom width, slope ratio in the cross and longitudinal sections, with/without spillway. The following conclusions can be drawn: 1) excavation of a spillway can effectively reduce the peak breach flow, therefore delay the time to peak; 2) the peak breach flow dramatically decreases and the time to peak delays as the spillway depth increases; 3) the peak breach flow changes little and the time to peak occurs earlier with the increment in spillway bottom width; 4) the peak breach flow decreases and the time to peak delays with the decrease of slope ratio in cross section in the spillway; 5) the slope ratio in the longitudinal section has little influence on the breach process. Hence, if conditions permit, the spillway with large spillway depth, small bottom width, and gentle slope ratio in the cross section is the preferable section morphology for the emergency disposal of the landslide dam.

Heat and water fluxmodeling in an earth dam

This study aims to identify the water flux in an earth dam using heat flux due to convection. Sixteen earth dams model was constructed in a hydraulic flume by varyinggeometrical and flow input parameters to identify heat and water flux.Homogeneous as well was earth dam with the clay core was built-in a hydraulic flume. Temperature measurements were doneto calculate heat flux in the experimental model. A finite element model of the earth dam using Seep/w was developed to obtain water flux,while temp/wwas to obtain heat flux. These results were used as input in Temp/w and Seep/w in Geostudio 2020. Significant reduction of the heat and water fluxwas seen while comparing the homogeneous models with central impervious core models. An increase in the heat and water flux was observed on increasing the downstream filter's length, longitudinal slope,and vice versa with the upstream slope and the thickness of the clay core. Comparing fluxesina homogeneous dam model (model 1) with the clay core model (model 9) with top width 2.4 m and bottom width 18 m in model 9, both water flux and heat flux were reduced78.46%. While comparing it with model 10, with bottom core width of 18 m and top core width of 1.9 m, both water flux and heat flux reduced by 77.72%. Heat flux measurements were found a valuable alternative to detecting water flux and seepage in an earth dam at a reduced cost.

A Comparative Study on the Wettability of Unstructured and Structured LiFePO4 with Nanosecond Pulsed Fiber Laser

The wettability of electrodes increases the power and energy densities of the cells of lithium-ion batteries, which is vital to improving their electrochemical performance. Numerous studies in the past have attempted to explain the effect of electrolyte and calendering on wettability. In this work, the wettability behavior of structured and unstructured LiFePO4 electrodes was studied. Firstly, the wettability morphology of the structured electrode was analyzed, and the electrode geometry was quantified in terms of ablation top and bottom width, ablation depth, and aspect ratio. From the result of the geometry analysis, the minimum measured values of aspect ratio and ablation depth were used as structured electrodes. Laser structuring with pitch distances of 112 μm, 224 μm, and 448 μm was applied. Secondly, the wettability of the electrodes was measured mainly by total wetting time and electrolyte spreading area. This study demonstrates that the laser-based structuring of the electrode increases the electrochemically active surface area of the electrode. The electrode structured with 112 μm pitch distance exhibited the fastest wetting at a time of 13.5 s. However, the unstructured electrode exhibited full wetting at a time of 84 s.

Long-Term Thermal Regimes of Subgrade under a Drainage Channel in High-Altitudinal Permafrost Environment

In permafrost regions, construction of a channel involves a large amount of excavation activities and changes to surface water body, which can exert great impacts on the thermal regimes of permafrost underlying. In this paper, a coupled mathematical model of heat and moisture transfer was constructed for freeze-thaw soils to investigate the long-term thermal regimes of subgrade beneath a drainage channel built on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Based on the numerical simulations, the thermal regimes of the subgrade both in warm and cold seasons were analyzed within a period of 50 years, as well as the impact of the widths of the channel. The results showed that the channel excavation and flowing water within could lead to a significant underlying permafrost degradation. During the first 30 years, the permafrost beneath the channel mainly experienced a rapid downward degradation. After that, the lateral thermal erosion of the flowing water led to a rapid permafrost degradation beneath the slope of the channel. In cold seasons, the shallow ground beneath the channel would not refreeze due to the flowing water and the thaw bulb actually expanded throughout the year. For the channel with a bottom width of 15 m, the thaw bulb beneath the channel could expand laterally to the natural ground about 10 m far away from the slope shoulder of channel till the 50th year. With different widths, the long-term thermal regimes of the subgrade beneath the channels differed considerably and the maximum difference was at the slope toe of the embankment. With the numerical simulated results, it is recommended that a channel built on permafrost should be wide-and-shallow rather than narrow-and-deep if conditions permit.

Silting thickness analysis of regular desilting in rectangular and trapezoidal channel

Silting in river is a dynamic process, so it needs to regular desilting. At present, underwater siltation monitoring is still in its early days and based on experience. This paper puts forward the criterion of discrimination, in which the flood discharge section is decreased by 20%. It used the method of steady uniform flow in open rectangular and trapezoidal channel for calculation. The results show that reference values of dredging thickness in different section forms were determined. Siltation thicknesses of rectangular channel are linearly related to water depth. And the reduction rate of trapezoidal channel has a quadratic function relation with silting thicknesses. They were proportional to channel width and their rates trended to mitigation when the bottom width and flood depth were constant. In addition, the reference value of dredging thickness should be determined by combining with the bottom width, surface width, water depth and other actual situation.

The Effect Of Lamong River Flow Diversion To Bed Surface Degradation

Kali Lamong River with a trapezoidal channel shape has a bottom width of about 30 m, a top width of 40 m and a depth of 3.5 m. In one of the river segments, the basis is in the form of a fixed bed and it is assumed that there is no sediment transport in this section. On the downstream side after the fixed bed section, the river segment is a mobile bed with river bed material that has an average grain diameter of 1.5 mm, a relative mass density of 2.6, and porosity of 0.3. Flowrate with Q50 is 1000.00 m3/sec with a maximum flow speed of 15 m/sec. Riverbed degradation will occur initially at the upstream point in the fixed and mobile beds. Depth of riverbed degradation calculated by the Parabolic model of 80.00 cm / year based on the solution of the equation.

Analysis of the grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) berry shape by using elliptic Fourier descriptors

Grapevine berry shape has important marketing value in the table grape commerce, hence variability evaluation of this characteristic is highly important. In this study berry shape of 5 table grape genotypes: “Fanny”, “Lidi”, “Hamburgi muskotály”, “Moldova”, and “Orsi” were compared. To evaluate the shape variability graphic reconstruction and elliptic Fourier analysis have been carried out. Shape outlines have been investigated and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been performed with the SHAPE software package. PCA of the contours showed that 6 out of the 77 principal components were effective to describe shape attributes. The first 6 PCs explained 94.51% of the total variance. PC1 associated with the width and length of the berry. PC2 related to the shape of the top and bottom of the berries, while PC3 linked to the ratio of the top and the bottom width. ANOVA of the principal component scores revealed significant difference among the genotypes. Results suggest that morphology of the berry is a variable not only among but within the accessions. Our findings confirmed that elliptic Fourier descriptors (EFDs) would be a powerful tool for quantifying grapevine berry morphological diversity.

Fabrication of nano-patterns of photoresist by ultraviolet lithography and oxygen plasma

Nanofluidic devices with two-dimensional nanochannels have many applications in biology and chemistry, however, it is still a challenge to develop a low-cost and simple method for fabricating nano-masks that can be used to produce two-dimensional nanochannels. In this paper, a novel low-cost and simple method, based on UV lithography and oxygen plasma, was proposed to fabricate nano-mask. The influence of exposure time on the photoresist mesas was investigated in the ultraviolet lithography process. The parameters of RF power and treatment time on the width reduction of photoresist mesas were analyzed by the oxygen plasma. In our work, in order to increase the efficiency controllability of photoresist removal, a RF power of 90 W, a pressure of oxygen plasma 60 Pa, and the time division method were adopted to remove photoresist by oxygen plasma. Finally, nano-patterns of photoresist mesas with bottom width of 330 nm were successfully fabricated. The proposed method provides a low-cost way to produce high-throughput two-dimensional nanochannels.

Monitoring of Biochemical Parameters and GHG Emissions in Bioaugmented Manure Composting

Composting is a sustainable alternative for the management of manure. In this study, the effects of bioaugmentation on cattle manure composting was investigated. In this study, two windrow piles were placed at 1.7 m in height, 2.1 m in bottom width, 0.6 m in top width, and 54 m in length. Microbial inoculum was added to pile 1, whereas the second pile was used as the control. After 17 days, the C:N ratio was reduced from 25.6 to 13.6 and the total nitrogen was increased from 1.89% to 3.36% in pile 1. The dominant bacteria identified in the compost samples belonged to the genera Clostridium, Bacillus, and Flavobacterium. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction indicated that the most commonly known pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia coli, Shigella, and Salmonella, were not detected in the finished material, indicating that the pathogenic microorganisms were inactivated by the composting process. Agronomic testing for cured compost indicated a C:N ratio of less than 15 and NH+4-N:NO3−-N ratio of less than 1. The whole process of windrow composting resulted in net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 157.94 tCO2-e and a global warming factor (GWF) of 1.04 tCO2-e·t−1 manure composted. This study showed that although bioaugmentation is a feasible treatment method for manure, GHG emissions need to be monitored.

Uplift Bearing Capacity of Cone-Cylinder Foundation for Transmission Line in Frozen Soil Regions, Using Reduced-Scale Model Tests and Numerical Simulations

In order to analyze the uplift bearing capacity of cone-cylinder foundation for transmission line in frozen soil regions, a series of reduced-scale modeling tests and numerical simulations are carried out. First, three reduced-scale cone-cylinder foundations with the same sizes, that are five times smaller than the prototype, are made and then loaded under uplift load at −5 °C, −10 °C, and −15 °C, respectively. On this basis, the foundations of nine sizes are modeled and loaded by numerical simulation. The impact of three dimension factors, including the ratio of depth to bottom width ( λ = h t / D t ), the top diameter of the cone-cylinder (d), and the bottom diameter of the cone-cylinder (D), on the uplift bearing capacity of foundations have been investigated. The results reveal that, for cone-cylinder foundation, the uplift bearing capacity is obviously affected by the freezing temperatures and the foundation sizes. The capacity is negatively correlated with the former. Whereas the order of correlation with the latter is as follows: λ, D, and d based on the comprehensive results of range and variance analysis, but none of them are the significant factors, according to the F-test. Furthermore, three failure mechanisms of frozen soil are distinguished and named T-mode, V-mode, and U-mode, respectively. Based on the above results, the bearing mechanism of cone-cylinder foundation in frozen soil is elaborated in detail.