Papers

Hydrodynamics, salinity intrusion and stratification in the Guadiana estuary were characterized using two- and three-dimensional models for fresh water flows covering the range of monthly averaged river flows for dry to wet years. Two- and three-dimensional circulation model results were then used to investigate the flushing properties of the lower estuary for passive organisms and for organisms with vertical migration capabilities, respectively. Stratification can occur in the Guadiana estuary for river flows as small as 10 m3 s-1, depending on the tidal amplitude.For homogeneous or weakly stratified conditions, salinity can be found upstream of Alcoutim (km 40) during neap tides, and extends even furtherfor spring tides. For a river flow of 10 m3 s-1, euhaline conditions reach 25 km upstream of the mouth during spring tides. For larger riverflows, the region under stratified conditions is located in the downstream 10 km, and its extent depends mainly on the tidal phase. For river flowsbetween 50 and 300 m3 s-1, salinity intrusion does not extend beyond km 20. As the river flow increases, the upper limits of the several halineregions approach one another, creating a lower estuary where salinity conditions have a wide range of horizontal variability. Residence times of passive organisms in the lower Guadiana estuary depend on the magnitude of the river flow, tides and other mechanisms, varying from a fewhours to 60 days in the range of river flows considered. The variability of residence times with different environmental conditions is similar for all river flows, the upper limit of residence times being about one order of magnitude larger than the lower limit. For river flows above 200 m3 s1, both limits of residence times are small (from a few hours to a few days), showing the dominant role of river flow in these conditions.However, active organisms, with vertical migration capabilities, can remain inside the Guadiana estuary under strong river flows, by taking advantage of the phase lag along the vertical profiles of velocity under stratified conditions. Permanence conditions improve for organisms located in the main channel, due to the larger stratification in deeper areas. The tidal amplitude also plays an important role, spring tides being more favourable to permanence than neap tides.

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Internal solitary waves (ISWs), travelling towards the South South-West (SSW), are now well documented in the northern and central Bay of Biscay. These are formed from large-amplitude internal tides which result from the interaction of the barotropic tide with the steep shelf-break topography. In the present paper, we investigate available satellite imagery (Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and ASAR data) to reveal that the southern Bay of Biscay is also a hotspot region which has a high level of ISW activity. Here, the ISWs travel towards the East North-East from the Cape Finisterre region off North-West Spain. In fact, we reveal the presence of two wave-trains travelling in slightly different directions (0551T and 0401T). By calculating the strength of the barotropic tidal forcing in the region, and identifying the likely propagation pathways (rays) of internal tidal (IT) energy, we identify the generation sites for these wave-trains as lying on either side of the Ortegal Promontory (OP). This is an undersea headland projecting towards the North-West from the north-western coast of Spain (near 441N, 8.51W), and over which the barotropic tides are forced to flow. For each generation site, IT rays emanating from critical topography (where the ray slope is equal to the topographic slope) in regions of strong barotropic forcing, rise to the surface (for one site after a reflection from the sea-floor) and pass through the thermocline close to the earliest occurrences of the ISWs in the respective wave trains. These rays would then produce, through nonlinear processes, the ISWs through the same local generation mechanism that has been used to explain the occurrence of the ISWs in the northern and central Bay. The local generation mechanism may therefore be more widely applicable than previously thought. In addition, the methods we have used to deduce the generation sites for these waves are expected to prove equally useful for studies in other areas of the world s oceans.

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As pozolanas são materiais que às temperaturas ordinárias se combinam, em presença da água, com o hidróxido de cálcio (Ca(OH)2) e com os diferentes componentes do cimento, originando compostos de grande estabilidade na água e com propriedades ligantes.Sabendo-se das potenciais características pozolânicas do pó de tijolo, este material pode ser aplicado em argamassas (e betões) como substituinte parcial do cimento. No entanto, é necessário calcular a sua reactividade pozolânica (pozolanicidade).

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Este artigo apresenta uma possibilidade de reaproveitamento dos resíduos produzidos a partir da construção e demolição de construções que tenham na sua constituição barro vermelho, ou seja resíduos da construção e demolição (RCD), tais como tijolos ou abobadilhas do referido material, submetidos a um processo de seleção e moagem.

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Sand transport models are often based on semi-empirical equilibrium transport formulae that relate sediment fluxes to physical properties such as velocity, depth and characteristic sediment grain sizes. In engineering applications, errors in these physical properties affect the accuracy of the sediment fluxes. The present analysis quantifies error propagation from the input physical properties to the sediment fluxes, determines which ones control the final errors, and provides insight into the relative strengths, weaknesses and limitations of four total load formulae (Ackers and White, Engelund and Hansen, van Rijn, and Karim and Kennedy) and one bed load formulation (van Rijn).The various sources of uncertainty are first investigated individually, in order to pinpoint the key physical properties that control the errors. Since the strong non-linearity of most sand transport formulae precludes analytical approaches, a Monte Carlo method is validated and used in the analysis. Results show that the accuracy in total sediment transport evaluations is mainly determined by errors in the current velocity and in the sediment median grain size. For the bed load transport using the van Rijn formula, errors in the current velocity alone control the final accuracy. In a final set of tests, all physical properties are allowed to vary simultaneously in order to analyze the combined effect of errors. The combined effect of errors in all the physical properties is then compared to an estimate of the errors due to the intrinsic limitations of the formulae. Results show that errors in the physical properties can be dominant for typical uncertainties associated with these properties, particularly for small depths.A comparison between the various formulae reveals that the van Rijn formula is more sensitive to basic physical properties. Hence, it should only be used when physical properties are known with precision. Keywords: Sediment transport models; Sensitivity analysis; Uncertainty analysis; Monte Carlo method

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