Civil Engineering

Global Positioning System (GPS) has been successfully used to measure displacements of oscillating flexible civil engineering structures such as long suspension bridges and high-rise buildings, and to derive their modal frequencies, usually up to 1 Hz, but there is evidence that these limits can be exceeded using high frequency GPS receivers. Based on systematic experiments in computer controlled oscillations with one- and three-degrees of freedom we investigated the potential of GPS, first to record higher oscillation frequencies, at least up to 4 Hz at the minimum resolution level of this instrument for kinematic applications (⩾5 mm), and second, to identify more than one dominant frequency. Data were processed using least squares-based spectral analysis and wavelet techniques which permit to analyze entire time series, even those of too short duration or those characterized by gaps, in both the frequency and the time domain.The ability of GPS to accurately measure frequencies of oscillations of relatively rigid (modal frequencies 1–4 Hz) civil engineering structures is demonstrated in the cases of two bridges.The outcome of this study is that GPS is suitable for the identification of dynamic characteristics of even relatively rigid (modal frequencies up to 4 Hz) civil engineering structures excited by various loads (wind, traffic, earthquakes, etc.) if displacements are above the uncertainty level of the method (⩾5 mm). Structural health monitoring of a wide range of structures appears therefore a promising field of application of GPS.

Natural rivers have many branching junctions. The flow in branching junctions is complex, owing to significant changes associated with flow dynamics and sediment transport that result in erosion and deposition problems. A branching channel of the Tigris River in Missan, Iraq, was selected for investigation of the scouring and deposition zones. A two-dimensional (2D) numerical model was used to simulate the hydro-morphodynamics in the branching channel, where hypothetical vanes as control structures were included at the junction to control the scouring and deposition zones. The simulation results suggest the most effective location, dimension, and angle of the introduced vanes. For the studied junction, controlling morphological features was achieved by introducing a single vane with an inclination angle of 90 • on the flow direction of the Tigris River. The most effective location of the introduced vane was the location that caused considerable enhancement in the flow depth and velocity distribution.

In this paper, an ensemble method, which demonstrated efficiency in GIS based flood modeling, was used to create flood probability indices for the Damansara River catchment in Malaysia. To estimate flood probability, the frequency ratio (FR) approach was combined with support vector machine (SVM) using a radial basis function kernel. Thirteen flood conditioning parameters, namely, altitude, aspect, slope, curvature, stream power index, topographic wetness index, sediment transport index, topographic roughness index, distance from river, geology, soil, surface runoff, and land use/cover (LULC), were selected. Each class of conditioning factor was weighted using the FR approach and entered as input for SVM modeling to optimize all the parameters. The flood hazard map was produced by combining the flood probability map with flood-triggering factors such as; averaged daily rainfall and flood inundation depth. Subsequently, the hydraulic 2D high-resolution sub-grid model (HRS) was applie...

Lightning strikes are pervasive, however, their distributions vary both spatially and in time, resulting in a complex pattern of lightning-ignited wildfires. Over the last decades, lightning-ignited wildfires have become an increasing threat in south-east Australia. Lightning in combination with drought conditions preceding the fire season can increase probability of sustained ignitions. In this study, we investigate spatial and seasonal patterns in cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the island state of Tasmania using data from the Global Position and Tracking System (GPATS) for the period January 2011 to June 2019. The annual number of lightning strikes and the ratio of negative to positive lightning (78:22 overall) were considerably different from one year to the next. There was an average of 80 lightning days per year, however, 50% of lightning strikes were concentrated over just four days. Most lightning strikes were observed in the west and north of the state consistent with ...