Search for: All records

Erosion of coastal dunes during storm events is an increasingly common problem in the face of global climate change and sea-level rise. To investigate the efficacy of bio-mediated ground improvement for reducing the impact of extreme events such as hurricanes, a near-prototype-scale experiment was performed. In the experiment, a model sand dune was constructed in a large wave flume and divided into treated and untreated zones which were instrumented with pressure and moisture sensors. One of the treated sections was subjected to a surface-spray technique to apply bio-cementation. Afterward, the dune was subjected to a discretized severe storm event (a scaled Hurricane Sandy) consisting of 25 trials. Surge runup and drawdown cause surface erosion and also internal instability due to liquefaction. Pore pressure sensors were embedded in different depths of the dune to study the pressure fluctuations during the wave action and the consequent momentary liquefaction phenomenon. Momentary liquefaction leads to detachment of fine sand particles and the initiation of internal erosion and sediment transport. In this project, remote assessment technology (lidar) was used between each trial to evaluate the performance of the dune under the surge flow by detecting the eroded volume of the sand. To better quantify material properties in-situ, a series of triaxial experiments were conducted on bio-cemented cores taken from the formed crust. The strength and stiffness of the cemented sand were measured under different drainage conditions. Element test results indicate a significant increase in critical bed shear stress (τc) due to cementation. 

Coastal dunes often present the first line of defense for the built environment during extreme wave surge and storm events. In order to protect inland infrastructure, dunes must resist erosion in the face of these incidents. Microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), or more commonly bio-cementation, can be used to increase the critical shear strength of sand and mitigate erosion. To evaluate the performance of bio-cemented dunes, prototypical dunes consisting of clean poorly graded sand collected from the Oregon coast were constructed within the Large Wave Flume at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University. The bio-cementation treatment was sprayed onto the surface of the unsaturated dune. The level of cementation was monitored using shear wave velocity measurements throughout the duration of the treatments. The treated and control dunes were subjected to 19 trials of approximately 300 waves each, with each trial increasing in water depth, wave height, and wave period. The performance of the dune was evaluated using lidar scans between each wave trial. The results indicate that the surface spraying treatment technique produced consistent levels of bio-cementation throughout the treated length of the dune and demonstrated significant resistance to erosion from the wave trails. 

Abstract Despite the growing number of binary black hole coalescences confidently observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include the effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that have already been identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total source-frame massM> 70M_⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz emitted gravitational-wave frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place a conservative upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0 <e≤ 0.3 at 16.9 Gpc⁻³yr⁻¹at the 90% confidence level. 

Abstract Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions to gravitational wave (GW) signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by (1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, (2) calculating the degree of overlap among the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, (3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms among pairs of signals, and (4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by (1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and (2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the nondetection of GW lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects.