The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is dependent on desalination of seawater to provide new water supplies for the future. Desalination is expensive and it is very important to reduce the cost and lower the energy consumption. Most seawater reverse osmosis facilities use open-ocean intakes, which require extensive pre-treatment processes to remove particulate and biological materials that cause operating problems. An alternative intake is the subsurface system which utilizes the concept of riverbank filtration using wells or galleries and provides natural filtration to improve the quality of feedwater before it enters the desalination plant. This reduces operating cost and lowers energy consumption. Research was focused on evaluating gallery-type intakes (beach and seabed galleries) that could be used along the Northern Red Sea shoreline to provide a better quality feedwater for desalination. The geological characteristics of the visited sites were favorable for the development of seabed filter systems (offshore), but not for beach gallery intakes. The low wave energy along the shoreline and the presence of mud or rocky coasts made beach galleries infeasible. One of the potentially favorable sites for a seabed filter was located in the nearshore area at King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). This site has a predominantly sandy offshore bottom with shallow water depths, and a low tide range. In addition, the bottom is always covered with water and contains soft limestone unit below the sand mantle that could be easy excavated to facilitate the construction of a seabed filter. About 50 sediment samples were collected from the site and laboratory measurements were performed on them. Grain size distribution, porosity and hydraulic conductivity measurements were performed on the sediment samples. In addition, six statistical methods were used to estimate the hydraulic conductivity values. Based on results of lab measurements, field observations, tide ranges and sediment types, it is concluded that the geological conditions and characteristics of KAEC site are feasible for design and construction of a seabed filtration system. A conservatively designed cell with dimensions of 100 by 50 m would produce about 25,000 m3/day of filtered seawater and seven cells could support a 60,000 m3/day (permeate) seawater RO plant.

A new centre for Archaeology and Anthropology : a proposal to create an edificial link towards connecting historical study to future course. Copyright / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

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<P> This study investigates ways to improve the accuracy of 3D geologic models by assessing the impact of data quality, grid complexity, data quantity and distribution, interpolation algorithm and program selection on model accuracy. The first component of this research examines the impact of variable quality data on 3D model outputs and presents a new methodology to optimize the impact of high quality data, while minimizing the impact of low quality data on the model results. This 'Quality Weighted' modelling approach greatly improves model accuracy when compared with un-weighted models. </p> <p> The second component of the research assesses the variability and influence of data quantity, data distribution, algorithm selection, and program selection on the accuracy of 3D geologic models. A series of synthetic grids representing environments of varying complexity were created from which data subsets were extracted using specially developed MA TLAB scripts. The modelled data were compared back to the actual synthetic values and statistical tests were conducted to quantify the impact of each variable on the accuracy of the model predictions. The results indicate that grid complexity is the predominant control on model accuracy, more data do not necessarily produce more accurate models, and data distribution is particularly important when relatively simple environments are modelled. A major finding of this study is that in some situations, the software program selected for modelling can have a greater influence on model accuracy than the algorithm used for interpolation. When modelling spatial data there is always a high level of uncertainty, especially in subsurface environments where the unit(s) of interest are defined by data only available in select locations. The research presented in this thesis can be used to guide the selection of modelling parameters used in 3D subsurface investigations and will allow the more effective and efficient creation of accurate 3D models. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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In dieser Arbeit wurde die Bildung nichtoxidischer Sauerstoffphasen an der Ru(0001)-Oberfläche untersucht. Glatte und defektreiche Oberflächen wurden einem hohen Sauerstoffdruck (bis 1bar) bei moderaten Temperaturen ( / The aim of the thesis presented here was the investigation of the formation of non oxidic oxygen phases on the Ru(0001) surface. Smooth and defect rich surfaces were exposed to high oxygen pressures (up to 1bar) at moderate temperatures (

It has long been known that any activity that results in changes in subsurface pressure, such as hydrocarbon production or waste or water reinjection, also causes underground deformations and movement, which can be described in terms of volumetric changes. Such deformations induce surface movement, which has a significant environmental impact. Induced surface deformations are measurable as vertical displacements; horizontal displacements; and tilts, which are the gradient of the surface deformation. The initial component of this study is a numerical model developed in C++ to predict and calculate surface deformations based on assumed subsurface volumetric changes occurring in a reservoir. The model is based on the unidirectional expansion technique using equations from Okada’s theory of dislocations (Okada, 1985). A second numerical model calculates subsurface volumetric changes based on surface deformation measurements, commonly referred to as solving for the inverse case. The inverse case is an ill-posed problem because the input is comprised of measured values that contain error. A regularization technique was therefore developed to help solve the ill-posed problem. A variety of surface deformation data sets were analyzed in order to determine the surface deformation input data that would produce the best solution and the optimum reconstruction of the initial subsurface volumetric changes. Tilt measurements, although very small, were found to be much better input than vertical displacement data for finding the inverse solution. Even in an ideal case with 0 % error, tilts result in a smaller RMSE (about 12 % smaller in the case studied) and thus a better resolution. In realistic cases with error, adding only 0.55 % of the maximum random error in the surface displacement data affects the back-calculated results to a significant extent: the RMSE increased by more than 13 times in the case studied. However, in an identical case using tilt measurements as input, adding 20 % of the maximum surface tilt value as random error increased the RMSE by 7 times, and remodelling the initial distribution of the volumetric changes in the subsurface was still possible. The required area of observation can also be reduced if tilt measurements are used. The optimal input includes tilt measurements in both directions: dz/dx and dz/dy. iv With respect to the number of observation points chosen, when tilts are used with an error of 0 %, very good resolution is obtainable using only 0.4 % of the unknowns as the number of benchmarks. For example, using only 10 observation points for a reservoir with 2500 elements, or unknowns resulted in an acceptable reconstruction. With respect to the sensitivity of the inverse solution to the depth of the reservoir and to the geometry of the observation grid, the deeper the reservoir, the more ill-posed the problem. The geometry of the benchmarks also has a significant effect on the solution of the inverse problem.

It has long been known that any activity that results in changes in subsurface pressure, such as hydrocarbon production or waste or water reinjection, also causes underground deformations and movement, which can be described in terms of volumetric changes. Such deformations induce surface movement, which has a significant environmental impact. Induced surface deformations are measurable as vertical displacements; horizontal displacements; and tilts, which are the gradient of the surface deformation. The initial component of this study is a numerical model developed in C++ to predict and calculate surface deformations based on assumed subsurface volumetric changes occurring in a reservoir. The model is based on the unidirectional expansion technique using equations from Okada’s theory of dislocations (Okada, 1985). A second numerical model calculates subsurface volumetric changes based on surface deformation measurements, commonly referred to as solving for the inverse case. The inverse case is an ill-posed problem because the input is comprised of measured values that contain error. A regularization technique was therefore developed to help solve the ill-posed problem. A variety of surface deformation data sets were analyzed in order to determine the surface deformation input data that would produce the best solution and the optimum reconstruction of the initial subsurface volumetric changes. Tilt measurements, although very small, were found to be much better input than vertical displacement data for finding the inverse solution. Even in an ideal case with 0 % error, tilts result in a smaller RMSE (about 12 % smaller in the case studied) and thus a better resolution. In realistic cases with error, adding only 0.55 % of the maximum random error in the surface displacement data affects the back-calculated results to a significant extent: the RMSE increased by more than 13 times in the case studied. However, in an identical case using tilt measurements as input, adding 20 % of the maximum surface tilt value as random error increased the RMSE by 7 times, and remodelling the initial distribution of the volumetric changes in the subsurface was still possible. The required area of observation can also be reduced if tilt measurements are used. The optimal input includes tilt measurements in both directions: dz/dx and dz/dy. iv With respect to the number of observation points chosen, when tilts are used with an error of 0 %, very good resolution is obtainable using only 0.4 % of the unknowns as the number of benchmarks. For example, using only 10 observation points for a reservoir with 2500 elements, or unknowns resulted in an acceptable reconstruction. With respect to the sensitivity of the inverse solution to the depth of the reservoir and to the geometry of the observation grid, the deeper the reservoir, the more ill-posed the problem. The geometry of the benchmarks also has a significant effect on the solution of the inverse problem.

Analytical solutions for aquifer response to pumping are commonly used to infer the hydraulic properties of aquifers. This dissertation develops new analytical solutions for the analysis of pumping test data from confined and unconfined aquifer.An analytical solution for flow to a partially penetrating well of infinitesimally small radius in a compressible unconfined aquifer is developed that allows inferring its saturated and unsaturated hydraulic properties from drawdowns recorded in the saturated and/or the unsaturated zone. The effects of unsaturated zoneconstitutive parameters and thickness on drawdowns in the saturated and unsaturated zones as functions of position and time is investigated; the solution is validated against numerical simulations of drawdown in a synthetic aquifer having unsaturated properties described by the van Genuchten (1980) - Mualem (1976)constitutive model; used to analyze drawdown data from a pumping test conducted by the US Geological Survey at Cape Cod,Massachusetts; and corresponding estimates of van Genuchten - Mualem parameters are compared with laboratoryvalues obtained for similar materials in the area.Drawdowns generated by extracting water from a large diameter (e.g. water supply) well are affected by wellbore storage. An analytical solution in Laplace transformed space for drawdown in a uniformanisotropic confined aquifer caused by withdrawing water at a constant rate from a partially penetrating well with storage is developed. When the pumping well is fully penetrating the solution reduces to that of Papadopulos and Cooper (1967); to that of Hantush (1964) when the pumping well has no wellbore storage; to the solution of Theis (1935) when both conditions are fulfilled; and to that of Yang et al. (2006) when the pumping well is partially penetrating, having finite radius but lacking storage. The solutionis validated against synthetic pumping test data and used to explore graphically the effects of partial penetration, wellbore storage and anisotropy on time evolutions of drawdown in the pumping well and in observation wells.The analytical solution for unconfined aquifers is extended to the case of a finite diameter pumping well with storage. The extended analytical solution is used to investigate the effects of storage in the pumping well and delayed piezometer response on drawdowns in the saturated and unsaturated zones as functions of position and time. The solution is validated against numerical simulations of drawdown in a synthetic aquifer having unsaturated properties described by the van Genuchten (1980) - Mualem (1976) model. It is then used to analyze a seven-day pumping test conducted by University of Waterloo researchers at the Canadian Forces Base Borden in Ontario, Canada; and to compare our results with those ofMoench (2008).