Water science and engineering最新文献

Increasing bacteria levels in the Lower Neches River caused by Hurricane Harvey has been of a serious concern. This study is to analyze the historical water sampling measurements and real-time water quality data collected with wireless sensors to monitor and evaluate water quality under different hydrological and hydraulic conditions. The statistical and Pearson correlation analysis on historical water samples determines that alkalinity, chloride, hardness, conductivity, and pH are highly correlated, and they decrease with increasing flow rate due to dilution. The flow rate has positive correlations with Escherichia coli, total suspended solids, and turbidity, which demonstrates that runoff is one of the causes of the elevated bacteria and sediment loadings in the river. The correlation between E. coli and turbidity indicates that turbidity greater than 45 nephelometric turbidity units in the Neches River can serve as a proxy for E. coli to indicate the bacterial outbreak. A series of statistical tools and an innovative two-layer data smoothing filter are developed to detect outliers, fill missing values, and filter spikes of the sensor measurements. The correlation analysis on the sensor data illustrates that the elevated sediment/bacteria/algae in the river is either caused by the first flush rain and heavy rain events in December to March or practices of land use and land cover. Therefore, utilizing sensor measurements along with rainfall and discharge data is recommended to monitor and evaluate water quality, then in turn to provide early alerts on water resources management decisions.

Coastal management in China is confronted with an urgent choice between natural restoration and maintenance of existing seawalls and reclaimed land for economic development. A key criterion for making this decision is the resilience to coastal flooding, which depends on the ability to predict tidal level. Tidal duration asymmetry (TDA) is a key parameter in determination of the arrival and duration of flood tides. This study selected the western inner shelf of the Yellow Sea (WYS) as the study area and investigated the responses of TDA to different shoreline configurations and relative sea level rise. The responses of TDA to shoreline reconstruction yielded spatial variability locally and remotely. In the nearshore area, the responses of TDA to the complex ocean environment mainly originated from the combined functions of reflection, bottom friction, and advection, which controlled the energy transfer from M₂ or S₂ constituents to their overtides or compound tides. The sensitivity of TDA to coastline typologies was not limited to coastal waters but could stretch over the entire inner shelf. The vulnerability of tidal responses was due to the displacement of the M₂ amphidrome of the Kelvin wave on the WYS, which in turn changed tidal energy fluxes over the regime. The relative sea level rise could intensify the feedback of TDA to seawalls and land reclamation.

Lignocellulose has the potential to become a bio-based adsorbent due to its biodegradability and renewability. In this study, a novel polydopamine-functionalized-lignin (lignin@PDA), prepared via self-polymerization of dopamine (PDA) on lignin, was used as a bio-based adsorbent for rapid scavenging of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)). The morphology, functional groups, crystalline structure, and chemical composition of lignin@PDA were characterized with a scanning electron microscope–energy dispersive spectrometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The Cr(VI) adsorption process of lignin@PDA was studied using batch experiments as a function of pH, ionic strength, adsorbent dose, and contact time at room temperature. The adsorption rate of lignin@PDA was five times greater than that of the unmodified lignin, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 102.6 mg/g in an acidic medium. The adsorption of Cr(VI) on lignin@PDA fit the pseudo-second-order equation and the Freundlich model, indicating that the adsorption process was mainly dominated by chemisorption and surface complexation. The thermodynamic parameters showed that adsorption of Cr(VI) on lignin@PDA was an endothermic and spontaneous process. The X-ray absorption fine structure results showed that sorption and reduction of Cr(VI) into Cr(III) occurred simultaneously on lignin. Moreover, PDA coating not only improved the reactivity of lignin but also promoted the complete reduction of Cr(VI) by lignin. According to these results, polydopamine-functionalized-lignin is a promising bio-based adsorbent for immobilization of Cr(VI) from wastewater.

The anti-sliding stability of a gravity dam along its foundation surface is a key problem in the design of gravity dams. In this study, a sensitivity analysis framework was proposed for investigating the factors affecting gravity dam anti-sliding stability along the foundation surface. According to the design specifications, the loads and factors affecting the stability of a gravity dam were comprehensively selected. Afterwards, the sensitivity of the factors was preliminarily analyzed using the Sobol method with Latin hypercube sampling. Then, the results of the sensitivity analysis were verified with those obtained using the Garson method. Finally, the effects of different sampling methods, probability distribution types of factor samples, and ranges of factor values on the analysis results were evaluated. A case study of a typical gravity dam in Yunnan Province of China showed that the dominant factors affecting the gravity dam anti-sliding stability were the anti-shear cohesion, upstream and downstream water levels, anti-shear friction coefficient, uplift pressure reduction coefficient, concrete density, and silt height. Choice of sampling methods showed no significant effect, but the probability distribution type and the range of factor values greatly affected the analysis results. Therefore, these two elements should be sufficiently considered to improve the reliability of the dam anti-sliding stability analysis.

A physically-based numerical three-dimensional earthen dam piping failure model is developed for homogeneous and zoned soil dams. This model is an erosion model, coupled with force/moment equilibrium analyses. Orifice flow and two-dimensional (2D) shallow water equations (SWE) are solved to simulate dam break flows at different breaching stages. Erosion rates of different soils with different construction compaction efforts are calculated using corresponding erosion formulae. The dam's real shape, soil properties, and surrounding area are programmed. Large outer 2D-SWE grids are used to control upstream and downstream hydraulic conditions and control the boundary conditions of orifice flow, and inner 2D-SWE flow is used to scour soil and perform force/moment equilibrium analyses. This model is validated using the European Commission IMPACT (Investigation of Extreme Flood Processes and Uncertainty) Test #5 in Norway, Teton Dam failure in Idaho, USA, and Quail Creek Dike failure in Utah, USA. All calculated peak outflows are within 10% errors of observed values. Simulation results show that, for a V-shaped dam like Teton Dam, a piping breach location at the abutment tends to result in a smaller peak breach outflow than the piping breach location at the dam's center; and if Teton Dam had broken from its center for internal erosion, a peak outflow of 117 851 m³/s, which is 81% larger than the peak outflow of 65 120 m³/s released from its right abutment, would have been released from Teton Dam. A lower piping inlet elevation tends to cause a faster/earlier piping breach than a higher piping inlet elevation.

To restore dam-blocked natural fish migratory passages, a growing number of artificial fishways have been built in water conservancy and hydropower projects in China. The Angu hydropower station involved diverse important fish habitats in the lower reaches of the Daduhe River in Southwest China. Therefore, a vertical slot fishway (VSF) and a nature-like fishway (NLF) were built near the backwater area of the reservoir to connect the upstream and downstream habitats. Hydrodynamic and aquatic ecological surveys were conducted after the completion of the project to estimate the fish passing effect of the two fishways. The results indicated that both fishways were in effective operation and could maintain the desired hydrodynamic conditions and be used by several local fish species. During the survey, 149 fish from 15 species and 111 fish from 17 species were captured by the traps in the VSF and NLF, respectively, while 1 263 fish from 27 species were found in the downstream area. Some species captured in the VSF were not found in the NLF, and vice versa, which implied the different preferences of fish. Meanwhile, 3 789 signals including 2 099 upward ones and 1 690 downward ones were monitored with an ultrasonic fish detector at the inlet of the VSF. These findings revealed the characteristics of fish species observed in and near the fishways and provided valuable insights into the different fish passing capabilities of VSF and NLF.

The unique structure and complex deformation characteristics of concrete face rockfill dams (CFRDs) create safety monitoring challenges. This study developed an improved random forest (IRF) model for dam health monitoring modeling by replacing the decision tree in the random forest (RF) model with a novel M5' model tree algorithm. The factors affecting dam deformation were preliminarily selected using the statistical model, and the grey relational degree theory was utilized to reduce the dimensions of model input variables. Finally, a deformation prediction model of CFRDs was established using the IRF model. The ten-fold cross-validation method was used to quantitatively analyze the parameters affecting the IRF algorithm. The performance of the established model was verified using data from three specific measurement points on the Jishixia dam and compared with other dam deformation prediction models. At point ES-10, the performance evaluation indices of the IRF model were superior to those of the M5' model tree and RF models and the classical support vector regression (SVR) and back propagation (BP) neural network models, indicating the satisfactory performance of the IRF model. The IRF model also outperformed the SVR and BP models in settlement prediction at points ES2-8 and ES4-10, demonstrating its strong anti-interference and generalization capabilities. This study has developed a novel method for forecasting and analyzing dam settlements with practical significance. Moreover, the established IRF model can also provide guidance for modeling health monitoring of other structures.

Of several noble metal nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have attracted special attention due to their distinct properties, such as favorable electrical conductivity, chemical stability, and catalytic and antibacterial activities. Green synthesis of AgNPs using plant extracts containing phytochemical agents has attracted considerable interest. This environmentally friendly approach is more biocompatible and cost-efficient and has the capability of supporting large-scale synthesis. This study developed an eco-friendly method for the preparation of AgNPs using the aqueous leaf extract of Saussurea obvallata as reducing and capping agents. Ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses were conducted to characterize the synthesized AgNPs. The morphology of AgNPs was found to be spherical with an average crystallite size of 12 nm and a maximum absorbance at 410 nm. 10 mg of AgNPs had potential to reduce 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in 16 min and exhibited strong biological activities against the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli (12 mm) and Gram-positive bacteria Enterococcus faecalis (13 mm). The antioxidant activity of the synthesized AgNPs was investigated against the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and exhibited up to 61.21% ± 0.02% at an AgNPs concentration of 500 μg/mL.

Three-dimensional (3D) porous absorbents have attracted significant attention in the oily wastewater treatment technology due to their high porosity and elasticity. Given their amphiphilic surface, they have a propensity to simultaneously absorb water and oil, which restricts their range of applications. In this study, a reduced graphene oxide and titanium dioxide nanocomposite (rGO/TiO₂) was used to fabricate an ultrahydrophobic melamine sponge (MS) through interfacial modification using a solution immersion technique. To further modify it, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was grafted onto its surface to establish stronger covalent bonds with the composite. The water contact angle of the sponge (rGO/TiO₂/PDMS/MS) was 164.2°, which satisfies the condition for ultrahydrophobicity. The evidence of its water repellency was demonstrated by the Cassie–Baxter theory and the lotus leaf effect. As a result of the increased density of rGO/TiO₂/PDMS/MS, it recorded an initial capacity that was 2 g/g lower than the raw MS for crude oil absorption. The raw MS retained 53% of its initial absorption capacity after 20 cycles of absorption, while rGO/TiO2/PDMS/MS retained 97%, suggesting good recyclability. Excellent oil and organic solvent recovery (90%–96%) was demonstrated by rGO/TiO₂/PDMS/MS in oil–water combinations. In a continuous separation system, it achieved a remarkable separation efficiency of 2.4 × 10⁶ L/(m³·h), and in turbulent emulsion separation, it achieved a demulsification efficiency of 90%–91%. This study provides a practical substitute for massive oil spill cleaning.

The material mechanical parameters of the dam body and foundation will change when a dam is reinforced during the aging process. This causes significant changes in the structural state of the project and makes it difficult to ensure its structural safety. In this study, a new deformation warning index for reinforced concrete dams was developed according to the prototype monitoring data, statistical models, three-dimensional finite element model (FEM) numerical simulation, and the critical conditions of the dam structure. A statistical model was established to separate the water pressure component. Then, a three-dimensional FEM of the reinforced concrete dam was constructed to simulate the water pressure component. Furthermore, the deformation components that affected the mechanical parameters of the dam under the same amount of reservoir water level change were separated and quantified accurately. In addition, the method for inversion of comprehensive mechanical parameters after dam reinforcement was used. The influence mechanisms of the deformation behavior of concrete dams under the reservoir water level and temperature changes were investigated. A new deformation warning index was developed by combining the forward-simulated critical water pressure component and temperature component in the period of extreme temperature decrease with the aging component separated by the statistical model. The new deformation warning index considers the structural state of the dam before and after reinforcement and links the structural strength criterion and the deformation evolution mechanisms. It provides a theoretical foundation and decision support for long-term service and operation management of reinforced dams.