Cascaded tripping of power lines due to mal-operation of zone 3 distance relays was one of the main causes of many previous blackouts worldwide. Encroachment of load into the zone 3 characteristics is one of the main cause for the maloperation of the relays. By improving the operation of zone 3 of distance relays it is possible to prevent such mal-operations so that cascaded line tripping can b...

The paper reviews models for inelastic deformation processes preceding earthquake rupture in brittle, natural rock masses. The discussion is organized around three types of failure models: (i) localization bifurcations, whereby a uniform or nearly uniform pattern of deformation gives way to highly localized deformations within a fault zone; (ii) non-homogeneous deformations due to an inclusion-...

The (Mw6.1, 7.3, 6.2) 1992 Landers earthquakes began on April 23 with the Mw6.1 1992 Joshua Tree preshock and form the most substantial earthquake sequence to occur in California in the last 40 years. This sequence ruptured almost 100 km of both surficial and concealed faults and caused aftershocks over an area 100 km wide by 180 km long. The faulting was predominantly strike slip and three mai...

Tem po ral b-value vari a tions have been com pletely ob tained for the seis mic fault ing pro cess of the 4 March 2008 Taoyuan earth quake (ML = 5.2), south ern Tai wan. In ad di tion to trig ger ing sev eral hun dred after shocks, the mainshock was pre ceded by two groups of foreshocks (64 events) that clus tered along the nar row ma jor fault zone. A high b-value of ~1.25, es ti mated from t...