For geotechnical stability analysis involving the Drucker-Prager(DP)criterion,both the c-ϕreduction scheme and the M-K reduction scheme can be utilized.With the aid of the second-order cone programming optimized finit...For geotechnical stability analysis involving the Drucker-Prager(DP)criterion,both the c-ϕreduction scheme and the M-K reduction scheme can be utilized.With the aid of the second-order cone programming optimized finite element method(FEM-SOCP),a comparison of the two strength reduction schemes for the stability analysis of a homogeneous slope and a multilayered slope is carried out.Numerical investigations disclose that the FoS results calculated by the c-ϕreduction scheme agree well with those calculated by the classical Morgenstern-Price solutions.However,the FoS results attained by the M-K reduction scheme may lead to conservative estimation of the geotechnical safety,particularly for the cases with large internal friction angles.In view of the possible big difference in stability analysis results caused by the M-K reduction scheme,the c-ϕreduction scheme is recommended for the geotechnical stability analyses involving the DP criterion.展开更多
To understand the strengths of rocks under complex stress states,a generalized nonlinear threedimensional(3D)Hoek‒Brown failure(NGHB)criterion was proposed in this study.This criterion shares the same parameters with ...To understand the strengths of rocks under complex stress states,a generalized nonlinear threedimensional(3D)Hoek‒Brown failure(NGHB)criterion was proposed in this study.This criterion shares the same parameters with the generalized HB(GHB)criterion and inherits the parameter advantages of GHB.Two new parameters,b,and n,were introduced into the NGHB criterion that primarily controls the deviatoric plane shape of the NGHB criterion under triaxial tension and compression,respectively.The NGHB criterion can consider the influence of intermediate principal stress(IPS),where the deviatoric plane shape satisfies the smoothness requirements,while the HB criterion not.This criterion can degenerate into the two modified 3D HB criteria,the Priest criterion under triaxial compression condition and the HB criterion under triaxial compression and tension condition.This criterion was verified using true triaxial test data for different parameters,six types of rocks,and two kinds of in situ rock masses.For comparison,three existing 3D HB criteria were selected for performance comparison research.The result showed that the NGHB criterion gave better prediction performance than other criteria.The prediction errors of the strength of six types of rocks and two kinds of in situ rock masses were in the range of 2.0724%-3.5091%and 1.0144%-3.2321%,respectively.The proposed criterion lays a preliminary theoretical foundation for prediction of engineering rock mass strength under complex in situ stress conditions.展开更多
Deep metal mines are often mined using the high-level pillars with subsequent cementation backfilling(HLSCB)mining method.At the design stage,it is therefore important to have a reasonable method for determining the s...Deep metal mines are often mined using the high-level pillars with subsequent cementation backfilling(HLSCB)mining method.At the design stage,it is therefore important to have a reasonable method for determining the shear strength of the high-level pillars(i.e.cohesion and internal friction angle)when they are supported by cemented backfilling.In this study,a formula was derived for the upper limit of the confining pressure σ3max on a high-level pillar supported by cemented backfilling in a deep metal mine.A new method of estimating the shear strength of such pillars was then proposed based on the Hoek eBrown failure criterion.Our analysis indicates that the horizontal stress σhh acting on the cemented backfill pillar can be simplified by expressing it as a constant value.A reasonable and effective value for σ3max can then be determined.The value of s3max predicted using the proposed method is generally less than 3 MPa.Within this range,the shear strength of the high-level pillar is accurately calculated using the equivalent MohreCoulomb theory.The proposed method can effectively avoid the calculation of inaccurate shear strength values for the high-level pillars when the original HoekeBrown criterion is used in the presence of large confining pressures,i.e.the situation in which the cohesion value is too large and the friction angle is too small can effectively be avoided.The proposed method is applied to a deep metal mine in China that is being excavated using the HLSCB method.The shear strength parameters of the high-level pillars obtained using the proposed method were input in the numerical simulations.The numerical results show that the recommended level heights and sizes of the high-level pillars and rooms in the mine are rational.展开更多
Based on existing triaxial compression experimental data,a new empirical failure criterion with wide applicability was proposed considering hydrostatic pressure,second stress invariance,and maximum shear stress.Four f...Based on existing triaxial compression experimental data,a new empirical failure criterion with wide applicability was proposed considering hydrostatic pressure,second stress invariance,and maximum shear stress.Four fitting evaluation indicators were used to verify the consistency of the new failure criterion,and the differences with the other 6 failure criteria were discussed.The characteristics of the new failure criteria in the principal stress space were finally analyzed.The results indicate that(1)the new failure criterion exhibits strong predictive ability for triaxial experiments and has good applicability for both intact and jointed rocks;(2)the influence of hydrostatic pressure on the failure surface exhibits a non-linear trend,and different hydrostatic pressure also exhibits different distribution patterns on the deviatoric stress plane,with a distribution characteristic pattern of hexagonal snowflake-regular hexagon.The maximum shear stress has a torsional effect on the new criterion,in the three-dimensional failure surface.The parameters a and b of the rock have an impact on the failure surface morphology of the new criterion function on the offset surface.展开更多
Excavation-induced disturbances in deep tunnels will lead to deterioration of rock properties and formation of excavation damaged zone(EDZ).This excavation damage effect may affect the potential rockburst pit depth.Ta...Excavation-induced disturbances in deep tunnels will lead to deterioration of rock properties and formation of excavation damaged zone(EDZ).This excavation damage effect may affect the potential rockburst pit depth.Taking two diversion tunnels of Jinping II hydropower station for example,the relationship between rockburst pit depth and excavation damage effect is first surveyed.The results indicate that the rockburst pit depth in tunnels with severe damage to rock masses is relatively large.Subsequently,the excavation-induced damage effect is characterized by disturbance factor D based on the Hoek-Brown criterion and wave velocity method.It is found that the EDZ could be further divided into a high-damage zone(HDZ)with D=1 and weak-damage zone(WDZ),and D decays from one to zero linearly.For this,a quantitative evaluation method for potential rockburst pit depth is established by presenting a three-element rockburst criterion considering rock strength,geostress and disturbance factor.The evaluation results obtained by this method match well with actual observations.In addition,the weakening of rock mass strength promotes the formation and expansion of potential rockburst pits.The potential rockburst pit depth is positively correlated with HDZ and WDZ depths,and the HDZ depth has a significant contribution to the potential rockburst pit depth.展开更多
This paper deals with the numerical implementation of the exponential Drucker-Parger plasticitymodel in the commercial finite element software,ABAQUS,via user subroutine UMAT for adhesive joint simulations.The influen...This paper deals with the numerical implementation of the exponential Drucker-Parger plasticitymodel in the commercial finite element software,ABAQUS,via user subroutine UMAT for adhesive joint simulations.The influence of hydrostatic pressure on adhesive strength was investigated by a modified Arcan fixture designed particularly to induce a different state of hydrostatic pressure within an adhesive layer.The developed user subroutine UMAT,which utilizes an associated plastic flow during a plastic deformation,can provide a good agreement between the simulations and the experimental data.Better numerical stability at highly positive hydrostatic pressure loads for a very high order of exponential function can also be achieved compared to when a non-associated flow is used.展开更多
When the Drucker Prager yield criterion is used, the MSC/NASTRAN program frequently predicts noticeable errors. The relevant part of NASTRAN Handbook was checked and some errors in the elasto plastics theory used in...When the Drucker Prager yield criterion is used, the MSC/NASTRAN program frequently predicts noticeable errors. The relevant part of NASTRAN Handbook was checked and some errors in the elasto plastics theory used in NASTRAN were detected in this paper. The procurement to prove these errors was verified by numerical calculation.展开更多
Underground constructions often encounter water environments,where water–rock interaction can increase porosity,thereby weakening engineering rocks.Correspondingly,the failure criterion for chemically corroded rocks ...Underground constructions often encounter water environments,where water–rock interaction can increase porosity,thereby weakening engineering rocks.Correspondingly,the failure criterion for chemically corroded rocks becomes essential in the stability analysis and design of such structures.This study enhances the applicability of the Hoek-Brown(H-B)criterion for engineering structures operating in chemically corrosive conditions by introducing a kinetic porosity-dependent instantaneous mi(KPIM).A multiscale experimental investigation,including nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR),X-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),pH and ion chromatography analysis,and triaxial compression tests,is employed to quantify pore structural changes and their linkage with the strength responses of limestone under coupled chemical-mechanical(C-M)conditions.By employing ion chromatography and NMR analysis,along with incorporating the principles of free-face dissolution theory accounting for both congruent and incongruent dissolution,a kinetic chemical corrosion model is developed.This model aims to calculate the kinetic porosity alterations within rocks exposed to varying H+concentrations and durations.Subsequently,utilizing the generalized mixture rule(GMR),the kinetic porositydependent mi is formulated.Evaluation of the KPIM-enhanced H-B criterion using compression test data from 5 types of rocks demonstrated a high level of consistency between the criterion and the experimental results,with a coefficient of determination greater than 0.96,a mean absolute percentage error less than 4.84%,and a root-mean-square deviation less than 5.95 MPa.Finally,the physical significance of the porosity-dependent instantaneous mi is clarified:it serves as an indicator of a rock’s capacity to leverage the confining pressure effect.展开更多
The macroscopic mechanical properties of rocks are significantly influenced by their microstructure.As a material bonded by mineral grains,the grain morphology of crystalline rock is the primary factor influencing the...The macroscopic mechanical properties of rocks are significantly influenced by their microstructure.As a material bonded by mineral grains,the grain morphology of crystalline rock is the primary factor influencing the strength.However,most strength criteria neglect the strength variations caused by different grain characteristics in rocks.Furthermore,the traditional linear criteria tend to overestimate tensile strength and exhibit apex singularity.To address these shortcomings,a piecewise strength criterion that considers the grain size effect has been proposed.A part of an ellipse was employed to construct the envelope of the tensive-shear region on the meridian plane,to accurately reproduce the low tensile-compressive strength ratio.Based on the analysis of experimental data,both linear and exponential modification functions that account for grain size effects were integrated into the proposed criterion.The corresponding finite element algorithm has been implemented.The accuracy and applicability of the proposed criterion were validated by comparing with the experimental data.展开更多
Indoor positioning is a key technology in today’s intelligent environments,and it plays a crucial role in many application areas.This paper proposed an unscented Kalman filter(UKF)based on the maximum correntropy cri...Indoor positioning is a key technology in today’s intelligent environments,and it plays a crucial role in many application areas.This paper proposed an unscented Kalman filter(UKF)based on the maximum correntropy criterion(MCC)instead of the minimummean square error criterion(MMSE).This innovative approach is applied to the loose coupling of the Inertial Navigation System(INS)and Ultra-Wideband(UWB).By introducing the maximum correntropy criterion,the MCCUKF algorithm dynamically adjusts the covariance matrices of the system noise and the measurement noise,thus enhancing its adaptability to diverse environmental localization requirements.Particularly in the presence of non-Gaussian noise,especially heavy-tailed noise,the MCCUKF exhibits superior accuracy and robustness compared to the traditional UKF.The method initially generates an estimate of the predicted state and covariance matrix through the unscented transform(UT)and then recharacterizes the measurement information using a nonlinear regression method at the cost of theMCC.Subsequently,the state and covariance matrices of the filter are updated by employing the unscented transformation on the measurement equations.Moreover,to mitigate the influence of non-line-of-sight(NLOS)errors positioning accuracy,this paper proposes a k-medoid clustering algorithm based on bisection k-means(Bikmeans).This algorithm preprocesses the UWB distance measurements to yield a more precise position estimation.Simulation results demonstrate that MCCUKF is robust to the uncertainty of UWB and realizes stable integration of INS and UWB systems.展开更多
Only simplified two-dimensional model and a single failure mode are adopted to calculate the ultimate pullout capacity(UPC)of anchor cables in most previous research.This study focuses on a more comprehensive combinat...Only simplified two-dimensional model and a single failure mode are adopted to calculate the ultimate pullout capacity(UPC)of anchor cables in most previous research.This study focuses on a more comprehensive combination failure mode that consists of bond failure of an anchorage body and failure of an anchored rock mass.The three-dimensional ultimate pullout capacity of the anchor cables is calculated based on the Hoek-Brown failure criterion and variation analysis method.The numerical solution for the curvilinear function in fracture plane is obtained based on the finite difference theory,which more accurately reflects the failure state of the anchor cable,as opposed to that being assumed in advance.The results reveal that relying solely on a single failure mode for UPC calculations has limitations,as changes in parameter values not only directly impact the UPC value but also can alter the failure model and thus the calculation method.展开更多
基金Projects(42002277,41972279,41772291)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProjects(2020M680321,2021T140046)supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation+1 种基金Projects(2020-zz-081,2021-PC-003)supported by the Beijing Postdoctoral Research Foundation,ChinaProject(X21074)supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture,China。
文摘For geotechnical stability analysis involving the Drucker-Prager(DP)criterion,both the c-ϕreduction scheme and the M-K reduction scheme can be utilized.With the aid of the second-order cone programming optimized finite element method(FEM-SOCP),a comparison of the two strength reduction schemes for the stability analysis of a homogeneous slope and a multilayered slope is carried out.Numerical investigations disclose that the FoS results calculated by the c-ϕreduction scheme agree well with those calculated by the classical Morgenstern-Price solutions.However,the FoS results attained by the M-K reduction scheme may lead to conservative estimation of the geotechnical safety,particularly for the cases with large internal friction angles.In view of the possible big difference in stability analysis results caused by the M-K reduction scheme,the c-ϕreduction scheme is recommended for the geotechnical stability analyses involving the DP criterion.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.51934003,52334004)Yunnan Major Scientific and Technological Projects(Grant No.202202AG050014)。
文摘To understand the strengths of rocks under complex stress states,a generalized nonlinear threedimensional(3D)Hoek‒Brown failure(NGHB)criterion was proposed in this study.This criterion shares the same parameters with the generalized HB(GHB)criterion and inherits the parameter advantages of GHB.Two new parameters,b,and n,were introduced into the NGHB criterion that primarily controls the deviatoric plane shape of the NGHB criterion under triaxial tension and compression,respectively.The NGHB criterion can consider the influence of intermediate principal stress(IPS),where the deviatoric plane shape satisfies the smoothness requirements,while the HB criterion not.This criterion can degenerate into the two modified 3D HB criteria,the Priest criterion under triaxial compression condition and the HB criterion under triaxial compression and tension condition.This criterion was verified using true triaxial test data for different parameters,six types of rocks,and two kinds of in situ rock masses.For comparison,three existing 3D HB criteria were selected for performance comparison research.The result showed that the NGHB criterion gave better prediction performance than other criteria.The prediction errors of the strength of six types of rocks and two kinds of in situ rock masses were in the range of 2.0724%-3.5091%and 1.0144%-3.2321%,respectively.The proposed criterion lays a preliminary theoretical foundation for prediction of engineering rock mass strength under complex in situ stress conditions.
基金Financial support for this work was provided by the General Program and Youth Fund Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.42377175 and 42002292).
文摘Deep metal mines are often mined using the high-level pillars with subsequent cementation backfilling(HLSCB)mining method.At the design stage,it is therefore important to have a reasonable method for determining the shear strength of the high-level pillars(i.e.cohesion and internal friction angle)when they are supported by cemented backfilling.In this study,a formula was derived for the upper limit of the confining pressure σ3max on a high-level pillar supported by cemented backfilling in a deep metal mine.A new method of estimating the shear strength of such pillars was then proposed based on the Hoek eBrown failure criterion.Our analysis indicates that the horizontal stress σhh acting on the cemented backfill pillar can be simplified by expressing it as a constant value.A reasonable and effective value for σ3max can then be determined.The value of s3max predicted using the proposed method is generally less than 3 MPa.Within this range,the shear strength of the high-level pillar is accurately calculated using the equivalent MohreCoulomb theory.The proposed method can effectively avoid the calculation of inaccurate shear strength values for the high-level pillars when the original HoekeBrown criterion is used in the presence of large confining pressures,i.e.the situation in which the cohesion value is too large and the friction angle is too small can effectively be avoided.The proposed method is applied to a deep metal mine in China that is being excavated using the HLSCB method.The shear strength parameters of the high-level pillars obtained using the proposed method were input in the numerical simulations.The numerical results show that the recommended level heights and sizes of the high-level pillars and rooms in the mine are rational.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.52004289 and U22A20165)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.2022XJNY01)。
文摘Based on existing triaxial compression experimental data,a new empirical failure criterion with wide applicability was proposed considering hydrostatic pressure,second stress invariance,and maximum shear stress.Four fitting evaluation indicators were used to verify the consistency of the new failure criterion,and the differences with the other 6 failure criteria were discussed.The characteristics of the new failure criteria in the principal stress space were finally analyzed.The results indicate that(1)the new failure criterion exhibits strong predictive ability for triaxial experiments and has good applicability for both intact and jointed rocks;(2)the influence of hydrostatic pressure on the failure surface exhibits a non-linear trend,and different hydrostatic pressure also exhibits different distribution patterns on the deviatoric stress plane,with a distribution characteristic pattern of hexagonal snowflake-regular hexagon.The maximum shear stress has a torsional effect on the new criterion,in the three-dimensional failure surface.The parameters a and b of the rock have an impact on the failure surface morphology of the new criterion function on the offset surface.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.42077244).
文摘Excavation-induced disturbances in deep tunnels will lead to deterioration of rock properties and formation of excavation damaged zone(EDZ).This excavation damage effect may affect the potential rockburst pit depth.Taking two diversion tunnels of Jinping II hydropower station for example,the relationship between rockburst pit depth and excavation damage effect is first surveyed.The results indicate that the rockburst pit depth in tunnels with severe damage to rock masses is relatively large.Subsequently,the excavation-induced damage effect is characterized by disturbance factor D based on the Hoek-Brown criterion and wave velocity method.It is found that the EDZ could be further divided into a high-damage zone(HDZ)with D=1 and weak-damage zone(WDZ),and D decays from one to zero linearly.For this,a quantitative evaluation method for potential rockburst pit depth is established by presenting a three-element rockburst criterion considering rock strength,geostress and disturbance factor.The evaluation results obtained by this method match well with actual observations.In addition,the weakening of rock mass strength promotes the formation and expansion of potential rockburst pits.The potential rockburst pit depth is positively correlated with HDZ and WDZ depths,and the HDZ depth has a significant contribution to the potential rockburst pit depth.
基金funded by King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok.Contract No.KMUTNB-PHD-62-07.
文摘This paper deals with the numerical implementation of the exponential Drucker-Parger plasticitymodel in the commercial finite element software,ABAQUS,via user subroutine UMAT for adhesive joint simulations.The influence of hydrostatic pressure on adhesive strength was investigated by a modified Arcan fixture designed particularly to induce a different state of hydrostatic pressure within an adhesive layer.The developed user subroutine UMAT,which utilizes an associated plastic flow during a plastic deformation,can provide a good agreement between the simulations and the experimental data.Better numerical stability at highly positive hydrostatic pressure loads for a very high order of exponential function can also be achieved compared to when a non-associated flow is used.
文摘When the Drucker Prager yield criterion is used, the MSC/NASTRAN program frequently predicts noticeable errors. The relevant part of NASTRAN Handbook was checked and some errors in the elasto plastics theory used in NASTRAN were detected in this paper. The procurement to prove these errors was verified by numerical calculation.
文摘Underground constructions often encounter water environments,where water–rock interaction can increase porosity,thereby weakening engineering rocks.Correspondingly,the failure criterion for chemically corroded rocks becomes essential in the stability analysis and design of such structures.This study enhances the applicability of the Hoek-Brown(H-B)criterion for engineering structures operating in chemically corrosive conditions by introducing a kinetic porosity-dependent instantaneous mi(KPIM).A multiscale experimental investigation,including nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR),X-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),pH and ion chromatography analysis,and triaxial compression tests,is employed to quantify pore structural changes and their linkage with the strength responses of limestone under coupled chemical-mechanical(C-M)conditions.By employing ion chromatography and NMR analysis,along with incorporating the principles of free-face dissolution theory accounting for both congruent and incongruent dissolution,a kinetic chemical corrosion model is developed.This model aims to calculate the kinetic porosity alterations within rocks exposed to varying H+concentrations and durations.Subsequently,utilizing the generalized mixture rule(GMR),the kinetic porositydependent mi is formulated.Evaluation of the KPIM-enhanced H-B criterion using compression test data from 5 types of rocks demonstrated a high level of consistency between the criterion and the experimental results,with a coefficient of determination greater than 0.96,a mean absolute percentage error less than 4.84%,and a root-mean-square deviation less than 5.95 MPa.Finally,the physical significance of the porosity-dependent instantaneous mi is clarified:it serves as an indicator of a rock’s capacity to leverage the confining pressure effect.
基金Project(2023YFC2907403)supported by the National Key R&D Program of ChinaProject(52074021)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China+1 种基金Project(2242045)supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation,ChinaProject(ZD202216)supported by the Beijing Association of Higher Education,China。
文摘The macroscopic mechanical properties of rocks are significantly influenced by their microstructure.As a material bonded by mineral grains,the grain morphology of crystalline rock is the primary factor influencing the strength.However,most strength criteria neglect the strength variations caused by different grain characteristics in rocks.Furthermore,the traditional linear criteria tend to overestimate tensile strength and exhibit apex singularity.To address these shortcomings,a piecewise strength criterion that considers the grain size effect has been proposed.A part of an ellipse was employed to construct the envelope of the tensive-shear region on the meridian plane,to accurately reproduce the low tensile-compressive strength ratio.Based on the analysis of experimental data,both linear and exponential modification functions that account for grain size effects were integrated into the proposed criterion.The corresponding finite element algorithm has been implemented.The accuracy and applicability of the proposed criterion were validated by comparing with the experimental data.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.62273083 and 61803077Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province under Grant No.F2020501012.
文摘Indoor positioning is a key technology in today’s intelligent environments,and it plays a crucial role in many application areas.This paper proposed an unscented Kalman filter(UKF)based on the maximum correntropy criterion(MCC)instead of the minimummean square error criterion(MMSE).This innovative approach is applied to the loose coupling of the Inertial Navigation System(INS)and Ultra-Wideband(UWB).By introducing the maximum correntropy criterion,the MCCUKF algorithm dynamically adjusts the covariance matrices of the system noise and the measurement noise,thus enhancing its adaptability to diverse environmental localization requirements.Particularly in the presence of non-Gaussian noise,especially heavy-tailed noise,the MCCUKF exhibits superior accuracy and robustness compared to the traditional UKF.The method initially generates an estimate of the predicted state and covariance matrix through the unscented transform(UT)and then recharacterizes the measurement information using a nonlinear regression method at the cost of theMCC.Subsequently,the state and covariance matrices of the filter are updated by employing the unscented transformation on the measurement equations.Moreover,to mitigate the influence of non-line-of-sight(NLOS)errors positioning accuracy,this paper proposes a k-medoid clustering algorithm based on bisection k-means(Bikmeans).This algorithm preprocesses the UWB distance measurements to yield a more precise position estimation.Simulation results demonstrate that MCCUKF is robust to the uncertainty of UWB and realizes stable integration of INS and UWB systems.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province(2023JJ40078)the Scientific Research Project of Hunan Provincial Education Department(No.22C0573)+2 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(51478477,51878668)Guizhou Provincial Department of Transportation Foundation(2017-122058)Foundation of Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Department([2018]2815).
文摘Only simplified two-dimensional model and a single failure mode are adopted to calculate the ultimate pullout capacity(UPC)of anchor cables in most previous research.This study focuses on a more comprehensive combination failure mode that consists of bond failure of an anchorage body and failure of an anchored rock mass.The three-dimensional ultimate pullout capacity of the anchor cables is calculated based on the Hoek-Brown failure criterion and variation analysis method.The numerical solution for the curvilinear function in fracture plane is obtained based on the finite difference theory,which more accurately reflects the failure state of the anchor cable,as opposed to that being assumed in advance.The results reveal that relying solely on a single failure mode for UPC calculations has limitations,as changes in parameter values not only directly impact the UPC value but also can alter the failure model and thus the calculation method.
