A model integrating geo-information and self-organizing map (SOM) for exploring the database of soil environmental surveys was established. The dataset of 5 heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb) was built by the regular grid sampling in Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Auxiliary datasets were collected throughout the study area to help interpret the potential causes of pollution. The main findings are as follows: (1) Soil samples of 5 elements exhibited strong variation and high skewness. High pollution risk existed in the case study area, especially Hg and Cd. (2) As and Pb had a similar topo-logical distribution pattern, meaning they behaved similarly in the soil environment. Cr had behaviours in soil different from those of the other 4 elements. (3) From the U-matrix of SOM networks, 3 levels of SEQ were identified, and 11 high risk areas of soil heavy metal-contaminated were found throughout the study area, which were basically near rivers, factories, and ore zones. (4) The variations of contamination index (CI) followed the trend of construction land (1.353) > forestland (1.267) > cropland (1.175) > grassland (1.056), which suggest that decision makers should focus more on the problem of soil pollution surrounding industrial and mining enterprises and farmland.
The performance of force-based and displacement-based seismic assessment methods for the life-safety limit state check of out-of-plane loaded unreinforced masonry walls is evaluated on the basis of refined numerical simulations. For this purpose, a discrete element model of a vertically spanning wall is built and validated against experimental results from static and dynamic test conditions. The model is then analysed for a large range of wall configurations. For each configuration, a static pushover analysis and a series of incremental dynamic analyses are run, the latter permitting to determine the capacity of the wall under dynamic loading. The accuracy of the assessment methods in predicting the acceleration at which the walls collapse is evaluated. It is found that the displacement-based method is more accurate, robust, and safe than the force-based method. The comparison also shows that for walls characterised by a relatively high ratio of axial load to Euler's critical load, both assessment methods lead to an overestimation of the wall capacity. As a remedy, a modification to the methods based on a recently developed mechanical model is put forward and tested. For the force-based method, it is additionally suggested to set for walls with relatively high overburden ratios the behaviour factor equal to 1. To ensure reproducibility of this study, all input and output files of the numerical simulations are made publicly available. 相似文献
