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Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Engineering

Technical note: Limitations on the use of space borne differential SAR interferometry for systematic monitoring and failure forecast of alpine landslides

Andrea Manconi

Published: 2019-06-16
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Recent advances on satellite geodesy have boosted our capabilities to map and monitor landslides globally with unprecedented resolutions. In this scenario, differential interferometry of space borne synthetic aperture radar imagery (DInSAR) plays a major role in identifying surface displacements associated to slope instabilities and in monitoring their spatial and temporal evolution. However, [...]

A Temperature- and Pressure-Sensitive Visco-Plasticity Theory based on Interface Mechanisms for Sedimentary Rocks

Mustafa Sari, Sotiris Alevizos, Thomas Poulet, et al.

Published: 2019-05-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Other Materials Science and Engineering

Constitutive modelling in geotechnical engineering and applied earth sciences is facing the challenge of assessing the long-term potential of both man-made and natural geohazards. This involves designing engineering operations for length scales and timescales well beyond those observable in the laboratory. In order to bridge the gap between scales, study rock behaviours well beyond their yield [...]

On the stability of deep-seated landslides. The cases of Vaiont (Italy) and Shuping (Three Gorges Dam, China)

Carolina Seguí, Hadrien Rattez, Emmanouil Veveakis

Published: 2019-05-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Deep-seated catastrophic landslides are among the most powerful natural hazards on earth. These devastating events are not possible to be prevented yet, because of their large volumes and sudden acceleration phase. The present study suggests a new method to detect when a landslide will turn unstable, giving both a time-window to evacuate the area that is going to be affected and critical values [...]

An assessment of the wind influence in local inertial 1D hydrodynamic flow routing

Fernando Mainardi Fan, Vitória Ache Rocha Lopes

Published: 2019-05-23
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering

One-dimensional (1D) hydrodynamic modeling studies generally do not take into account the influence of wind, although literature experiences demonstrate the importance of this information in some cases. In this context, the present work had the objective to investigate this matter further, studying the influence of wind on hydrodynamic 1D modeling results and proposing an abacus for the rapid [...]

Using nano-XRM and high-contrast imaging to inform micro-porosity permeability during Stokes-Brinkman single and two-phase flow simulations on micro-CT images

Hannah Menke, Ying Gao, Sven Linden, et al.

Published: 2019-05-17
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Carbonate rocks have particularly complex and multiscale pore systems which are weakly understood. In this study we use combined experimental, modelling, and pore space generation methods to tackle the impact of micro-porosity on the bulk flow properties of Estaillades limestone. First, a nano-core from a microporous grain of Estaillades Limestone was scanned using x-ray nano tomography [...]

Well-being loss: a comprehensive metric for household disaster resilience

Maryia Markhvida, Brian Walsh, Stephane Hallegatte, et al.

Published: 2019-05-16
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Natural disaster risk assessments typically consider environmental hazard and physical damage, neglecting to quantify how asset losses affect households’ well-being. However, for a given asset loss, a wealthy household might easily recover, while a poor household might suffer from major, long-lasting impacts. Ignoring such differential impacts can lead to inequitable interventions and exacerbate [...]

A Novel Hybrid Finite Element-Spectral Boundary Integral Scheme for Modeling Earthquake Cycles: Application to Rate and State Faults with Low-Velocity Zones

Mohamed Abdelmeguid, Xiao Ma, Ahmed Elbanna

Published: 2019-05-13
Subjects: Applied Mechanics, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Mechanical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

We present a novel hybrid finite element (FE) - spectral boundary integral (SBI) scheme that enables efficient simulation of earthquake cycles. This combined FE-SBI approach captures the benefits of finite elements in modelling problems with nonlinearities, as well as the computational superiority of SBI. The domain truncation enabled by this scheme allows us to utilize high-resolution finite [...]

Using a Superconducting Gravimeter in Support of Absolute Gravity Campaigning — A feasibility study

Hans-Georg Scherneck, Marcin Rajner

Published: 2019-05-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Preparing for joint analysis of absolute gravity (AG) campaigns, this report investigates whether a stationary superconducting gravimeter (SCG) can provide a long-term stable measurement of site-dependent perturbations that help in reduction to the local value of little-$g$ and its secular rate of change. The crucial element concerns the discrimination of instrumental drift components from trends [...]

On the automatic and a priori design of unstructured mesh resolution for coastal ocean circulation models

Keith J. Roberts, William James Pringle, Joannes J. Westerink, et al.

Published: 2019-05-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

This study investigates the design of unstructured mesh resolution and its impact on the modeling of barotropic tides along the United States East Coast and Gulf Coast (ECGC). A discrete representation of a computational ocean domain (mesh design) is necessary due to finite computational resources and an incomplete knowledge of the physical system (e.g., shoreline and seabed topography). The [...]

A spatially resolved fluid-solid interaction model for dense granular packs/Soft-Sand.

Paula Alejandra Gago, Ali Q. Raeini, Peter King

Published: 2019-05-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Fluid flow through dense granular packs or soft sands can be described as a Darcy s flow for low injection rates, as the friction between grain-grain and grain-walls dominate the solid system behaviour. For high injection rates, fluid forces can generate grain displacement forming flow channels or ``fractures, which in turn modify local properties within the system, such as permeability and [...]

Analysis of Persistence in the Flood Timing and the Role of Catchment Wetness on Flood Generation in a Large River Basin in India

Nandamuri Yamini Rama, Poulomi Ganguli, Chandranath Chatterjee

Published: 2019-05-08
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability

This study contributes to the understanding of the timing of occurrence of floods and role of the catchment wetness in flood processes (i.e., magnitude and the timing of floods) over one of the largest tropical pluvial river basin system, Mahanadi, in India. Being located in the monsoon ‘core’ region (18° - 28° N latitude and 73° - 82° E longitude) and its proximity to Bay of Bengal, Mahanadi [...]

Trends of hydroclimatic intensity in Colombia

Oscar J. Mesa, Viviana Urrea, Andrés Ochoa

Published: 2019-05-08
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Climate, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Statistics and Probability, Water Resource Management

Prediction of changes in precipitation in upcoming years and decades caused by global climate change associated with the greenhouse effect, deforestation and other anthropic perturbations is a practical and scientific problem of high complexity and huge consequences. To advance toward this challenge we look at the daily historical record of all available rain gauges in Colombia to estimate an [...]

Probabilistic space- and time-interaction modeling of main-shock earthquake rupture occurrence

Luis Ceferino, Anne Kiremidjian, Gregory Deierlein

Published: 2019-04-28
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Structural Engineering

This paper presents a probabilistic formulation for modeling earthquake rupture processes of mainshocks. A correlated multivariate Bernoulli distribution is used to model rupture occurrence. The model captures time interaction through the use of Brownian passage-time (BPT) distributions to assess rupture interarrival in multiple sections of the fault, and it also considers spatial interaction [...]

Bayesian parameter estimation for space and time interacting earthquake rupture model using historical and physics-based simulated earthquake catalogs

Luis Ceferino, Percy Galvez, Jean Paul Ampuero, et al.

Published: 2019-04-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis

This paper presents a robust parameter estimation technique for a probabilistic earthquake hazard model that captures time and space interactions between earthquake mainshocks. The approach addresses the existing limitations of parameter estimation techniques by developing a Bayesian formulation and leveraging physics-based simulated synthetic catalogs to expand the limited datasets of historical [...]

Influence of dissolution on frictional properties of carbonate faults

Hadrien Rattez, Fabrizio Disidoro, Jean Sulem, et al.

Published: 2019-04-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Velocity stepping experiments have been performed on a simulated calcite gouge using an annular shear apparatus to investigate the effect of dissolution on the frictional properties of a carbonate fault. The tested material was put in contact with hydrochloric acid at different concentration in order to dissolve the grains. Particle size analysis shows that the small grains tend to disappear due [...]

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