Spur dike is a common hydraulic structure, which is widely used in hydraulic engineering such as channel regulation, flood prevention and river diversion for preserving the desired water depth, deflecting the main current and protecting river banks. In actual operations, spur dikes exert influence on river system usually in the form of groups, and the flow field around spur dike group is compli...

Sheeted dike complexes, in which dike intrudes dike without intermediate screens of gabbro or pillow lava, have long been considered key features of oceanic lithosphere and ophiolites formed in extensional environments. The presence of a sheeted complex implies an approximate balance between spreading rate and magma supply, such that there is just enough melt to fill newly formed fractures prod...

In this paper an example is elaborated of the design of a river dike, incorporating reliability-based models. The design is demonstrated with the help of this example, which is based on [1]. 1. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION A river dike has to be designed to protect a particular region of land. The goal is to minimize the construction cost and the expected loss, due to inundation. The total cost can be e...

This paper determines the optimal timing of dike heightenings as well as the corresponding optimal dike heightenings to protect against floods. To derive the optimal policy we design an algorithm based on the Impulse Control Maximum Principle. In this way the paper presents one of the first real life applications of the Impulse Control Maximum Principle developed by Blaquière. We show that the ...

Global Positioning System geodesy was used to measure surface deformation on Soufriere Hills volcano, Montserrat from October 6, 1995 to July 1, 1997 during initial dome growth and gravitational collapse. Our data from this period show non-axially symmetric horizontal displacements, and decreasing subsidence as a function of radial distance from the former topographic high of the volcanic edifi...

Introduction: The Yaxcopoil borehole (Yax-1) penetrates below the suevitic units through 600 m of sediments (894.9 m – 1510.9 m). These rocks are most likely of Cretaceous age and are regarded as a displaced “megablock”. The stratified sequence was intruded by suevitic dikes (910 m, 916 m), one impact melt dike (1347 m) and several clastic, polymict dikes. The latter are the focus of this study...

[1] Several zones of graben (Memnonia, Sirenum, Icaria, Thaumasia, and Claritas Fossae) extend radially away from the Tharsis rise in the southern hemisphere of Mars for distances of up to 3000–4000 km. These graben systems are commonly interpreted to be related to regional tectonic deformation of the Tharsis rise associated with either upwelling or loading. We explore the possibility that thes...

Severe events around the globe have highlighted the threat to life, infrastructure and the environment posed by flooding. Flood forecasting systems are a vital component of broader flood risk management activities. These systems are becoming increasingly more sophisticated as their importance in reducing life loss and economic damages is realized. Part of this increase in complexity is focused ...

This paper is an extension of previous work which characterises soil behaviours using the grading entropy diagram. The present work looks at the piping process in granular soils, by considering some new data from flood-protection dikes. The piping process is divided into three parts here: particle movement at the micro scale to segregate free water; sand boil development (which is the initiatio...