Science in China Series E: Technological Sciences

In the present study, we express the quality, function, and characteristics of architecture to help people comprehensively understand what architecture is. We also reveal the problems and conflict found in population, land, water resources, pollution, energy, and the organization systems in construction. China’s economy is transforming. We should focus on the cities, architectural environment, energy conservation, emission-reduction, and low-carbon output that will result in successful green development. We should macroscopically and microscopically analyze the development, from the natural environment to the artificial environment; from the relationship between human beings and nature to the combination of social ecology in cities, and farmlands. We must learn to develop and control them harmoniously and scientifically to provide a foundation for the methods used in architecture research.

As an integrated structure, an arch dam is assumed to bear loads in its design consideration. However, multi-defects, such as cracks and the opening of transverse joints, are unavoidable during construction and operation. Multi-defects will reduce the structural integrity and stiffness of the dam and affect its working performance and degree of safety. In the current paper, a numerical model of defects and a simulation method of a high arch dam are introduced. The Chencun arch dam is analyzed as a case study. An entire course simulation analysis of the Chencun arch dam from construction to operation is carried out, through which the opening of the transverse and longitudinal joints, formation of cracks, and their influence on deformation and stress of the dam are studied. According to the results of the analysis, appropriate measures should be adopted to prevent the development of cracks, and observation should be strengthened for a more timely discovery of risks.

The conflation of geographic datasets is one of the key technologies in the realm of spatial data capture and integration in geographic information system (GIS). Map conflation is a complex process of matching and merging spatial data. Due to various reasons such as errors in original data related to map data discrepancies, a great amount of uncertainties exists during the process and this will result in errors in featuring matching, especially point feature. Thus, it is vital to develop the method to detect the errors in feature matching and further the conflation results will not be affected. In this paper, error matching detection and robust estimation adjustment methods are proposed for map conflation. The characteristics of errors in feature matching are first analyzed, then a new approach for map conflation based on the least-squares adjustment is presented, and a robust estimation adjustment method is further proposed to detect and process matching errors. The results of the map conflation test show that the proposed method not only determines the errors in feature matching, but also obtains the optimal merging results in map conflation.

Based on the theories of surface physical chemistry, theoretical formulations for permeability and porosity are presented which include both stress effect and matrix shrinkage in a single equation. Then, a three-dimensional, dual porosity, nonequilibrium adsorption, pseudosteady state mathematical model for gas and water is established and solved by the fully implicit method and the block preconditioning orthomin algorithm. A history matching for the Qinshui Well TL003 is done. From the results, it is shown that the obvious enhancement of permeability occurs along with the passing time but the reservoir pressure of 15# coal seam cannot fulfill the critical adsorption pressure as a result of the water recharge of the aquifer. Hence, it is suggested to plug the 15# coal seam.

Discuss and develop some contents which are relevant to the IEEE Std 647™-2006 in this paper. The IEEE Std only involves Allan variance, and decomposes it into five primary noise terms, in which, however, the noise nature of the so called “rate random walk noise“ and the “rate ramp“ is doubted by the IEEE Std editors. Here we use a mathematical identity to entirely affirm the first query and partially the second query as mentioned above. Besides, we argue that only the classical variance can be used in navigation, not the Allan variance. In order to seek the true nature of all drift terms in the variance, we adopt our original work that represents the noises as damped oscillations, to obtain the power spectral density (PSD) of the noises which is then transformed back into time domain. When the damped time constant is much longer than the sampling interval, the resulting slow variation term may be expanded into three terms: ordinary bias instability, rate random walk, and rate ramp. Therefore, these “noise terms“ are not independent, and they are more of deterministic errors than random noises, and can be explained quantitatively. The resulting fast variation drift may be expanded into two terms. The first term is the same as angle random noise, while the second term adds to the true quantization noise term to form a new combined term called “quantization noise term“. As the result of our research, not only the IEEE Std editors’ suspicions above are answered completely, but a new theory to analyze the laser gyro drifts is also presented, with several supporting examples to explain and verify the theory.

Trench sidewall passivation is a key step in the SCREAM (single crystal reactive etching and metallization) process for releasing suspended MEMS structures. In this paper, the parylene thin film is reported to serve as the passivation layer owing to its excellent conformality, chemical inertness, mechanical performance, and especially, low growth temperature. The deposited parylene films are characterized and the test structures are released through SCREAM process utilizing the parylene films as a passivation layer. The results show that as a passivation layer the parylene has more merits than the PECVD SiO2 film.

Although the dams produce remarkable social and economic benefits, the threat made by unsafe dams to the life and property of people who live in the lower river area is un-negligible. Based on the monitoring data which reflect the safety condition of dams, the risk degree concept is proposed and the analysis system and model for evaluating risk degree (rate) are established in this paper by combining the reliability theory and field monitoring data. The analysis method for risk degree is presented based on Bayesian approach. A five-grade risk degree system for dam operation risk and corresponding risk degree is put forward according to the safety condition of dams. The operation risks of four cascade dams on some river are analyzed by the model and approach presented here and the result is adopted by the owner.

The nonlinear free transverse vibrations of a nano-beam on simple supports are investigated based on nonlocal elasticity theory. The governing equation is proposed by considering geometric nonlinearity due to finite stretching of the beam. The method of multiple scales is applied to the governing equation to evaluate the nonlinear natural frequencies. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the analytical results and highlight the contributions of the nonlinear term and nonlocal effect.

Reviewing briefly the recent progress in a joint program of specifying the polar ionosphere primarily on the basis of ground magnetometer data, this paper emphasizes the importance of processing data from around the world in real time for space weather predictions. The output parameters from the program include ionospheric electric fields and currents and field-aligned currents. These real-time records are essential for running computer simulations under realistic boundary conditions and thus for making numerical predictions of space weather efficient as reliable as possible. Data from individual ground magnetometers as well as from the solar wind are collected and are used as input for the KRM and AMIE magnetogram-inversion algorithms, through which the two-dimensional distribution of the ionospheric parameters is calculated. One of the goals of the program is to specify the solar-terrestrial environment in terms of ionospheric processes and to provide the scientific community with more than what geomagnetic activity indices and statistical models indicate.

In this paper, we introduce an effective processing method to acquire the time derivative of the AE index as a coefficient. Using this coefficient, the AE index can be divided into the four stages: quiet, ascending, descending and active stages. The statistical results show that the ascending and descending stages of the AE index are dominant and occupy two thirds of the whole period. An analysis of the relationship between the occurrence frequencies of the Dst index and AE index in solar cycle 23 shows that the monthly variation of the occurrence frequencies of the ascending stage of AE is closely related to the decrease of the Dst index.