Large storage tanks situated in coastal areas are vulnerable to environmental hazards, with earthquakes being one of the most destructive forces threatening their structural safety. Additionally, differential settlement can significantly alter conditions in the tank, including the inclination, thereby changing the direction of external applied excitation forces and affecting the liquid sloshing response. To investigate the coupled effects of structural settlement and external excitation, model tests were conducted in series to analyze liquid sloshing behavior in a tilted tank subjected to harmonic excitation. The results revealed that the liquid response under combined environmental loads displayed distinct characteristics compared with that under single excitation. While the inclination angle had minimal influence during the unstable sloshing stage, it became crucial during the stable stage, particularly for third-order resonant responses, leading to intensified sloshing. More specifically, as the tilt angle of the storage tank from 0° to 8°, the steady-state wave height at third-order resonance increased by approximately 69%. This highlights the amplified risks to the structural stability and safety posed by differential settlement. Furthermore, variations in steady-state wave heights due to differential settlement conditions were investigated. The water level elevation along the tank walls varies as the inclination angles increase, which leads to potential risks to the stability of liquid storage under forced motion, especially under symmetric structural designs, and increases the likelihood of structural instability, oil spills, and other coastal disasters. These results provide valuable insights into the safety risks and sustainable utilization of coastal infrastructure, serving a basis for assessing and mitigating the risks associated with structural settlement and seismic excitations.

As a viable means to understand the associated deformation, performance study of deep excavations has been conducted worldwide in previous studies, a scenario of ground surface settlement characteristics among different sites has been proposed since 1960s. The objective is to study the characteristics during excavation in Beijing and fill in the blank on the scenario. Thirty excavation cases with good-quality construction and field observation data are selected to quantify the relationship between settlement and excavation, and to analyze the ground surface deformation behavior. The magnitude and location of maximum ground surface settlement ($\delta vm$), the apparent influence range, development process and pattern are depicted. This study demonstrates that: (1) Concave trough pattern of final ground surface settlement is detected, slight heave was observed and $\delta vm$ located at distances about 0.5H to 0.75H from the wall. (2) Spatial difference of ground surface settlement ($\delta v$) varies greatly, great depression appeared behind each wall and maximum settlements at midspans of both sides occurs with the lowest 1-2 struts removal, especially the long side with a $\Delta \delta v$ of $2.8 \pm 0.75$ mm. Movement was least of all by the corners. (3) Final settlement generally ranges from 5mm to -20mm, less than $\delta vm$. Influence zones reach to a distance about 2.5H to 3.1H outside the excavation.

Accurate detection of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is important for weather forecasting, urban air quality monitoring, and agricultural and ecological protection. In this study, we propose a new method for enhancing ABL height detection accuracy by integrating multi-channel polarized lidar signals at 355 nm and 532 nm wavelengths. Radiosonde observations and ERA5 reanalysis are used to validate the lidar-derived results. By calculating the gradients of signals of different wavelengths and weighted fusion, the position of the top of the boundary layer is identified, and corresponding weights are assigned to signals of different wavelengths according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the signals to obtain a more accurate atmospheric boundary layer height. This method can effectively mitigate the influence of noise and provides more stable and accurate ABL height estimates, particularly under complex aerosol conditions. Three case studies of ABL height detection over the Beijing region demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method. The fused ABLHs were found to be consistent with the sounding data and ERA5. This research offers a robust approach to enhancing ABL height detection and provides valuable data support for meteorological studies, pollution monitoring, and environmental protection.