Effect of Replacement of Cement by Metakalion on the Properties of High Performance Concrete Subjected to Acid Attack

Vol.2 No. 3

Year: 2012

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Effect of Replacement of Cement by Metakalion on the Properties of High Performance Concrete Subjected to Acid Attack 

Author Name: Beulah M., Prahallada M.C 

Synopsis: 

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the effect of partial replacement of cement by metakalion by various percentages viz 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% on the properties of high performance concrete, when it is subjected to acid attack. An aggregate binder ratio of 2 and different water binder ratios viz 0.3, 0.35, 0.40 and 0.45 was used in this investigation. Concrete specimens of size 150 x 150 x 150 mm were casted to find residual compressive strength and specimens of size 100 x 100 x 100mm were casted to find percentage weight loss; both the sizes of specimens were casted and cured as per IS specification. After 28 days water curing, the concrete specimens were kept immersed in 5% concentrated acid solution for 30, 60 and 90 days for observation. Before immersion, they were weighed accurately and after required days of immersion and observation, the specimens were removed from acid media, weighed accurately and tested for their compressive strength; weight loss and hardness of concrete were studied. The various results which indicate the effect of replacement of cement by metakalion on HPC are presented in this paper to draw useful conclusions. The results were compared with reference mix. Test results indicate that use of replacement cement by metakalion in HPC has improved performance of concrete up to 10%

Durability of Steel Fibre Reinforced High Strength Metakaolin Blended Concrete

Vol.2 No. 3

Year: 2012

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Durability of Steel Fibre Reinforced High Strength Metakaolin Blended Concrete 

Author Name: P. Srinivasa Rao, Abdul Rahim.Z , Seshadri Sekhar Tirumala 

Synopsis: 

Cement Concrete is most widely used material for various constructions. When compared with steel, concrete is most widely used in construction. But concrete has some of the drawbacks like low tensile strength, less ductility, heavy weight, high shrinkage and high permeability. To overcome these drawbacks many researchers all over the world are actively involved in improving the properties of the concrete according to their applications. As a part of my research work an attempt is made to study the strength & durability of steel fibre reinforced Metakaolin blended concrete, when it is exposed to certain types of chemicals. Metakaolin is a thermally structured, ultra fine pozzolona, which replaces industrial byproducts such as silica fume,  fly ash, etc.,. This paper presents experimental investigations carried out to evaluate the strength and the durability in terms of Chemical Resistance and weight loss of steel fibre reinforced concrete with and without Metakaolin for concrete of M50 grade. Concrete cubes are made with partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement by Metakaolin. Water to cementitious material ratio used is 0.55. The optimized dosage of super plasticizer is noticed as 1 % weight of binding material. In this investigation an attempt is made with chemicals like H2SO4 and HCl. Crimped Steel fibres with 80 as aspect ratio at 0, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% of volume of concrete are used. The results show that the percentage of weight loss is reduced and compressive strength is increased in the case of Steel fibre reinforced concrete and concrete containing 10 % Metakaolin replaced concrete when compared to the normal concrete. Also the less percentage weight loss is noticed in the case of HCl and severe in the case of H2SO4.

Studies on High Strength Self Compacting Concrete Mixes Using Mineral Admixtures

Vol.2 No. 3

Year: 2012

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Studies on High Strength Self Compacting Concrete Mixes Using Mineral Admixtures 

Author Name: Seshadri Sekhar Tirumala, S. Sesha Phani , P. Srinivasa Rao , P. Sravana 

Synopsis: 

In the present investigation a rational mix design is established and self compactability testing methods have been carried out from the view point of making it a standard concrete by using   mineral admixtures like micro silica and fly ash for imparting High Strength Self Compacting Concrete. The  flow properties of resulting concrete is characterized in the fresh state by methods used for Self compacting concrete, such as Slump-flow, V-funnel and L- box tests respectively. Further the mechanical properties compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of concrete are examined for High Strength Self Compacting Concrete mix of grade M100.

Impact Strength Of Steel Fibre Reinforced High Strength Self Compacting Concrete

Vol.2 No. 3

Year: 2012

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Impact Strength Of Steel Fibre Reinforced High Strength Self Compacting Concrete 

Author Name: Vasusmitha Joshi, P. Srinivasa Rao 

Synopsis: 

Cement based materials are quasi-brittle and are known to exhibit a highly stress-rate sensitive behavior. In structures that are subjected to impact forces, this causes concern in two ways: first the brittleness may result in catastrophic failure without warning and second, the properties of concrete during such events may be very different from those measured in standardized quasi static tests. Unfortunately, there are no standardized tests available for testing concrete under impact loading and there is significant confusion as to what constitutes an appropriate test. Concrete is a mostly used construction material in the world. As the use of concrete becomes wide spread the specifications of concrete like Durability, Quality, Compactness and Optimization of concrete becomes more important. Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) is a very fluid concrete and a homogeneous mixture that solves most of the problems related to ordinary concrete. Besides, SCC gets compacted under its own weight and there is no need for an internal vibrator for the body of the mould. This specification helps the execution of construction components under high compression of reinforcement. This paper concentrates mainly on studying the properties like workability and Impact strength of Fibre Reinforced High Strength Self Compacting concrete using Steel Fibres in various proportions ranging from 0 to 1.5 % for SCC mixes of Grade M 80.The resulting concrete is characterized in the fresh state by methods used for Self compacted concrete, such as Slump flow, V-funnel and L-Box tests respectively.

Studying The Effect Of Maintaining The Urban Roads At Different Serviceability Levels And Applying Deferred Maintenance

Vol.2 No. 3

Year: 2012

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Studying The Effect Of Maintaining The Urban Roads At Different Serviceability Levels And Applying Deferred Maintenance 

Author Name: Yogesh Shah, S.S. Jain , Tiwari, Devesh , Jain M.K 

Synopsis : 

The level of service defines the appropriate level of maintenance and the priority placed on the work. These levels can be used in planning, performing and evaluating the various maintenance activities with available funds. According to Indian codes, the priorities for levels of service are set for three possible levels of maintenance funding viz. (i) desirable level (highest level of funding) (ii) average level (iii) acceptable level (lowest level of funding). The main objective of a pavement maintenance management system is to provide a scientific tool to maintain roads at desired serviceability levels. It is also well accepted fact that due to paucity of funds it is not possible to provide the highest level of serviceability and hence there’s a need to evaluate the pavement conditions at lower serviceability levels. This case study demonstrates the determination of fund requirements for maintaining the urban pavement sections as per three serviceability levels defined as desirable, average and accepted. The analysis has done using HDM-4 shows the effect of changing the serviceability level on varying fund requirements and the pavement network condition. Also, the effect of applying the deferred maintenance to the urban pavement sections due to scarcity of funds is analyzed. The 23.7 Km road length of Noida urban city, near Delhi is selected for this study.

Practical Way To Identify The False Target Signatures In Gpr Images Of Ground Profile

Vol. 2 No. 2

Year: 2012

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Practical Way To Identify The False Target Signatures In Gpr Images Of Ground Profile 

Author Name: D.C. Bala, S.S. Jain 

Synopsis: 

The application of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for pavement evaluation is relatively new concept in India, especially for transportation infrastructure study to evaluate its defects and condition rapidly, continuously and non-destructively. The images of the studied pavement section containing underground utility (here metallic water pipes & electric cables are taken) items show hyperbolic signatures and by using velocity calibration by hyperbolic matching approach it is possible to determine the depth and leakage status. But, generally the main problem that is encountered in the analysis of the GPR image is the occurrence of false hyperbolic signatures which may appear due to the reflection from nearby big trees, houses and overhead bridges/ under ways.  It is therefore, important to resolve the issue of detection of false target in air by GPR. Thus, in the present work practical data have been acquired using 250 MHz ground coupled GPR from the areas having big objects that can interfere with the GPR images. The GPR signatures of the trees, fly over and overhead pathway have been collected, and based on the GPR acquired velocity (from GPR image) of the electromagnetic (EM) wave propagating through the ground has been analyzed to differentiate between the air objects and the ground objects. After analysis it has been found that if the GPR extracted velocity is within the range of (0.050 m/ns to 0.150 m/ns), it represents all sorts of ground materials (generally used for construction) under various moisture conditions (presence of huge water to dry condition), and the object is under the earth surface. Whereas, if the velocity is above 0.19 m/ns or 0.200 m/ns and above represents false air events i.e. object is in air. This work can provide technical assistance to the beginners involved in the GPR based manpower development programmes.

 

 

 

Experimental Studies On Ferrocement Slabs Using Self Compacting Mortar

Vol. 2 No. 2

Year: 2012

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Experimental Studies On Ferrocement Slabs Using Self Compacting Mortar 

Author Name: Deepa Shri, R. Thenmozhi 

Synopsis: 

Now-a-days ferrocement elements are used as building material as well as structural materials, since ferrocement can put the building into diet. Ferrocement elements are thin, flexible and the steel reinforcement is distributed widely throughout the cement mortar. Instead of cement mortar, self compacting mortar is used in order to eliminate the external vibration and to overcome the difficulties and problems in the construction process and it can flow through congested formwork and corners where the conventional cement mortar cannot facilitate perfect filling and compaction. The objective of this study was to develop the properties of self compacting mortar using SCC principles. 3 mixes of SCM were prepared by maintaining constant percentage of Super Plasticizer and Viscosity Modifying Agent of 0.85% and 0.23% respectively and varying w/c in the range of 0.40, 0.45 and 0.50 with mortar ratio of 1:2. For each mixes 9 cubes (7cm X 7cm X 7cm) were cast. The workability of the fresh mortar determined using slump flow and V-funnel tests. The hardened properties were determined at 3, 7, 28 days of age. The SCM test results were compared with the control specimen to see the inference of self-compatibility. This mortar developed is applied in the construction of the ferrocement slabs and their behaviour was studied.

 

 

 

Cement Added Low Lime Flyash Based Geopolymer Concrete-A New Eco-Friendly Construction Material For Future Decades

Vol. 2 No. 2

Year: 2012

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Cement Added Low Lime Flyash Based Geopolymer Concrete-A New Eco-Friendly Construction Material For Future Decades 

Author Name: Siva Konda Reddy, K. Naveen Kumar Reddy , J.Varaprasad 

Synopsis: 

It is expected that in the near future, the civil engineering community will have to produce structures in harmony with the concept of sustainable development through the use of high-performance materials with low environmental impact that are produced at a reasonable cost. Geopolymer concrete provides one route toward this objective synthesized from the materials of geological origin or by product materials such as fly ash, which are rich in silicon and aluminum. But major disadvantage of geopolymer concrete (GPC) is curing of this concrete is to be carried at elevated temperatures and this concrete is recommended for precast members because of temperature curing. This paper finds solution to overcome these problems in GPC by replacing fly ash with cement and the tests show encouraging results by which this new cement added GPC can be made as Eco-friendly construction material.

 

 

A GIS Based Study Of Water Pollutants, Characteristics And Their Affects In Hilauli Block, India

Vol. 2 No. 2

Year: 2012

Issue: Mar-May

Title: A GIS Based Study Of Water Pollutants, Characteristics And Their Affects In Hilauli Block, India 

Author Name: Rajat Agarwal, Etishree Agarwal, Dr. R.D.Garg , Prof. P.K.Garg 

Synopsis: 

Groundwater quality has a major significance, being the major alternate source of domestic, industrial and drinking water supply and therefore it needs greater attention of all concerned The present study demonstrates the spatial distribution of various chemical parameters, such as pH, F, Cl, iron, nitrate, alkalinity, TDS, total hardness etc. using GIS techniques for Hilauli block of Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh. A Water Quality Index (WQI) was calculated to find the suitability of water for drinking purpose. The overall analysis of the water quality index in the study area revealed that most of the area with > 50 value exhibited poor, very poor and unsuitable water quality.

 

 

Study of Construction of Skywalk From Bandra Suburban Railway Station (East) To Kalanagar By M.M.R.D.A -A Case Study

Vol. 2 No. 2

Year: 2012

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Study of Construction of Skywalk From Bandra Suburban Railway Station (East) To Kalanagar By M.M.R.D.A -A Case Study 

Author Name: Arjita Biswas 

Synopsis: 

Bandra is one of the major suburban stations in Mumbai. More than thousand suburban trains operation take place every day about 5 lacks commuters traveling through this station. Out of this 39% commuters approach the station by walk while 32% by bus 16% by Auto and 13% by other modes. The percentage to the station is nearly equal on the East and West. With the development of Bandra-Kurla Complex into last few years the commuters from BKC have substantial increased. Further, the Western Railway is developing the Bandra Terminal about 1 km north of the suburban station and operations from this terminal are also increasing every year above. The considering the Bandra Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme has been included in the priority works under MUIP master plan. After considering several alternatives it is decided to develop Skywalks from Bandra (E) to Kalanagar and Bandra (W) to Hill road and Mohd. Raffi Chowk on priority. Skywalk form Bandra (E) to Kalanagar has been completed as pilot project.

 

Watershed Management: Concept, Principles and Challenges to Improving Productivity, Resources and Livelihoods

Vol. 2 No. 2

Year: 2012

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Watershed Management: Concept, Principles and Challenges to Improving Productivity, Resources and Livelihoods 

Author Name: Vishal Pandurang Kumbhar, Sushma Shekhar Kulkarni , Vidula Arun Swami 

Synopsis: 

 Watershed is not simply the hydrological unit but also socio-political-ecological entity which plays crucial role in determining food, social, and economical security and provides life support services to rural people. The criteria for selecting watershed size also depend on the objectives of the development and terrain slope. A large watershed can be managed in plain valley areas or where forest or pasture development is the main objective. In hilly areas or where intensive agriculture development is planned, the size of watershed relatively preferred is small. This paper describes the concept, principles and challenges in watershed management.

 

Advancements in Flood Risk Mapping Systems: A Brief Review

Vol. 2 No. 1

Year: 2012

Issue: Dec-Feb

Title: Advancements in Flood Risk Mapping Systems: A Brief Review 

Author Name: Anurag Aeron, Rahul D Garg , D. S. Arya , S. P. Aggarwal 

Synopsis: 

Floods have the greatest damage potential of all natural disasters worldwide and affect the largest number of people. Plans and efforts must be undertaken to move from post-disaster response to disaster mitigation. More than ever, there is the need for decision makers to adopt holistic approaches for flood disaster mitigation and management. It is recognized that comprehensive assessments of risks from natural hazards, are needed. Assessment of risk and the involvement of the community in the decision making, planning and implementation process can help to obtain sustainable solutions. Solutions must reflect the human dimension and must also consider the impacts of changing land use on flooding, erosion, and landslides. Implementation will only be sustainable if solutions are suitable for the community at risk, over the long term. Different country uses different policies and methods for minimizing vulnerabilities and adverse impacts of hazards to facilitate sustainable development. In this paper, the high risk and socio-economical loss due to flood is discussed. Various concepts and methods are presented by different researchers to mitigate the effect of floods. Remote Sensing, GIS, Google Earth and various new software and technologies are being used for flood forecasting and flood risk analysis. A brief review of few methods is presented in this paper. After a critical analysis it can be concluded that a highly integrated system is required for forecasting the floods. It should integrate geo-morphological, hydrological, meteorological, and socioeconomic aspects to provide more accurate and effective results for decision making. It requires coordination across many agencies at national to community levels for the system to work. Therefore it is clear that efficient disaster mitigation system is rigorously required to minimize the social and financial loss. In current scenario various new technologies and equipments are used to forecast and mitigate the disaster effects.

 

 

Operating Procedure For Design Of Reinfoeced Soil Wall & Analysis With Plaxis 8.2

Vol. 2 No. 1

Year: 2012

Issue: Dec-Feb

Title: Operating Procedure For Design Of Reinfoeced Soil Wall & Analysis With Plaxis 8.2 

Author Name: ANKESH SHRIVASTAVA, D. Kishan , S.S. Goliya 

Synopsis: 

In recent years, many departments of transportation are working to keep pace with population growth by considering major infrastructure improvements to their highways. The successive expansion of the highway system to meet increasing demand has made extension of the right-of-way economically prohibitive. The use of earth retaining walls has allowed highway upgrades to be constructed within existing right-of-ways, consequently lowering the additional cost of acquiring separate lands. The design of such systems, in particular for the soil MSE wall, is done using computer programs such Goldnail and Snail. These computer codes are based on limit-equilibrium methods and are typically used as design tools for conventional wall systems in which some degree of wall deflection is tolerated. Moreover, these methods do not account for the additional outward thrust expected to occur at the soil nail/MSE wall interface. As a result, the requirements for designing MSE walls systems should not only be based on stability but should also be based on wall deformation. The aim of the paper to provide guideline about designing procedure of MSE Wall & Analysis it by F.E.M. (PLAXIS) method.

 

 

Soil Improvement By The Use Of Waste Plastic Material

Vol. 2 No. 1

Year: 2012

Issue: Dec-Feb

Title: Soil Improvement By The Use Of Waste Plastic Material 

Author Name: S.K. Bukhari, Naveesh Sharma , B.A. Lone 

Synopsis: 

Most of the geotechnical projects focus on assessing the existing ground and rock conditions. On some project, the soil condition may be poor, so we may have to consider the methods for soil improvement. Presently used techniques for ground improvement are removal and replacement of weak soils; grouting the weak soil, vibrocompactions, dynamic compaction, blast densification; insitu replacement of weak soils, stabilisation using admixtures, concrete soil reinforcement and use of geosynthetics such as geotextiles, geogrids, geowebs, etc. But these methods may be either expensive or time consuming. These may also prove a hazard to the environment.  This is a serious problem experienced by the civil engineers. To overcome this problem, we introduce the use of waste plastic materials for soil improvement. These can perform five primary functions such as separation between different layers, reinforcement, fluid barriers, protection of geosynthetics, erosion control. This technique is found to be simple, cost effective and does not require any special equipment. Also, helps to save our environment, as disposal of plastics is a problem creating environmental hazard.

 

 

Water Chemistry of Suran River, District Poonch, Jammu And Kashmir State, India

Vol. 2 No. 1

Year: 2012

Issue: Dec-Feb

Title: Water Chemistry of Suran River, District Poonch, Jammu And Kashmir State, India 

Author Name: B.A. Lone, Amita Fotedar , B.K. Fotedar 

Synopsis: 

Studies carried out on fifteen water samples of the Suran river from Bonikhet to Surankot, Poonch district, Jammu Himalaya in respect of Si4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Na+, Fe2+, Mn2+, Cu2+, Ni2+, Zn2 and Pb2+ reveal Fe2+, Mn2+ and Si4+ concentration above permissible limits and hence toxic for human consumption. However, no element among the chemically analysed was found harmful as far as agriculture is concerned. Turbidity values of Suran river water were found higher because of higher index of erosion in the watershed areas of Suran river. The different parameters for water, with respect to agricultural use namely: SAR (Sodium Adsorption Ratio), SSP (Sodium Soluble Percentage), RSC (Residual Sodium Carbonate), MR (Magnesium Ratio), CR (Corrosivity Ratio), EC (Electrical Conductivity), TDS (Total Dissolved Salts), TH (Total Hardness as CaCO3 are found all below permissible levels. TDS values are found < 500 ppm and hence suitable for domestic use.

 

Snow Wetness And Density Estimation Using Space Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Data

Vol. 2 No. 1

Year: 2012

Issue: Dec-Feb

Title: Snow Wetness And Density Estimation Using Space Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Data 

Author Name: Praveen Thakur, Rahul D Garg , Pradeep K Garg 

Synopsis: 

The current study has been done using space based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data to estimate the snow wetness and snow density in Manali watershed of Beas River, Himachal Pradesh, India. SAR data used is dual co-polarized (HH/VV) data of Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT), Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) and Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS)-Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data. SAR based inversion models were implemented in Mathematica and MATLAB, and has been used for finding wet and dry snow dielectric constant, snow wetness and snow density. Maps of forest cover, layover and shadow were used to mask these areas in snow parameter estimation. Overall accuracy in terms of R2 value comes out to be 0.86 for snow wetness and, 0.85 for snow density based on ground truth data for subset area of Manali sub-basin of Beas river upto Manali. 

 

Overview And New Technology Of Prestressing Steel – Concrete Composite Bridge

Vol. 2 No. 1

Year: 2012

Issue: Dec-Feb

Title: Overview And New Technology Of Prestressing Steel – Concrete Composite Bridge 

Author Name: Pramod Kumar Singh, Vikash Khatri 

Synopsis: 

Prestressed concrete and steel concrete composite are commonly used for constructing bridges. Construction of prestressed concrete bridge is time taking and less reliable. Steel concrete composite bridges have problem of excessive deflection under dead and super imposed loads, live load and deflection due to shrinkage and creep of deck slab concrete. External post-tensioning for strengthening of existing bridges has been used in many countries and has been found to provide an efficient and economic solution for a wide range of bridge types and conditions. External prestressing is now being used for construction of new bridges also. The paper introduces a new concept of prestressed steel-concrete composite bridge, in which external post-tensioning is used in the steel-concrete composite bridge. In the prestressed steel-concrete composite bridge, high tensile wires are tensioned by means of jacks bearing on the end block of the concrete deck slab and anchored. As a result, longitudinal stress level of the concrete deck slab is raised, which not only eliminates shrinkage and creep strains but also improves its fatigue performance. 40.0m and 72.0m spans, un-supported and supported during construction composite and prestressed composite bridges have been considered for the comparison. It is concluded that prestressing not only raises stress level of the deck slab concrete improving its fatigue performance, but it also improves strength and stiffness of the bridge considerably. Further, it is concluded that prestressed steel-concrete composite bridges need not be supported during construction as the deflections under dead load and imposed load are eliminated using prestress. This is highly desirable for longer spans. For example, prestressed steel-concrete composite bridges can be used for longer span up to 80m in comparison to prestressed concrete bridges and steel concrete composite bridges, which can be constructed up to 40m span only.

Studies On Relationship Of Water – Powder Ratio And Compressive Strength Of Glass Fibre Self Compacted Concrete

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2011

Issue: Sep-Nov

Title: Studies On Relationship Of Water – Powder Ratio And Compressive Strength Of Glass Fibre Self Compacted Concrete 

Author Name: seshadri sekhar Tirumala 

Synopsis: 

The purpose of this research was to study 200 Glass Fibre Self Compacting Concrete (GFSCC) mixtures that consisted of various materials and proportions and then fitted into linear regression models at 28 and 90 days; either into the water/cement (w/c) materials ratio or the water/powder (w/p) ratio. From the study it was learned that the w/p ratio provides us with a stronger indicator of strength by observing the improvement in compressive strength values at 28 and 90 days. This may have been due to the delayed pozzolanic activity through the Fly ash, which is available in powder form . From this result we concluded that the water/powder ratio is a better indicator of strength. In addition to its highly pozzolanic nature, it was noted that Fly ash (available in powder form) assisted in the refinement of the pore structure of the concrete. This in turn also lead to a higher performance of the concrete. Water demand of self compacting concrete is high compared to the concrete of same strength of ordinary concrete. This was attributed to the higher fineness of fly ash. Thus, net water-powder ratio in turn affects its relation with compressive strength of concrete. This demands a retrospection of well-known Abram's Water-Cement ratio relationship. With this view as part of an ongoing research program, an investigation was taken up to study the relationship between water-powder ratio and compressive strength of glass fibre self compacting concrete using alkali-resistant glass fibres.

Pof Based Local (Point) Sensor For Crack Opening Studies: Application In Concrete

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2011

Issue: Sep-Nov

Title: Pof Based Local (Point) Sensor For Crack Opening Studies: Application In Concrete 

Author Name: K.Samrajyam, Sobha , T.D.Gunneswara Rao 

Synopsis: 

Cracking is one of the frequent causes of complaints in concrete industry. Cracking is known to occur due to fatigue, overloading and damage caused either by loading or environment. The failure of bridges,structures , buildings and dams is due to cracking. This underlines the importance of estimation of crack width as predictor for the health of concrete structures. The results obtained with a POF ( plastic optical fibre) based local (point) sensor that was developed for use with concrete specimens in a three point bend test for in house experiments are reported. The range of CMOD ( Crack mouth opening displacements ) values are established

Analysis And Assessment Of Strength In Portland Cement Concrete And Geopolymer Composites

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2011

Issue: Sep-Nov

Title: Analysis And Assessment Of Strength In Portland Cement Concrete And Geopolymer Composites 

Author Name: Radhakrishna Krishna, Manjunath GS , Venumadhav T 

Synopsis: 

Compressive strength development of Portland cement concrete and geopolymer composites is studied together. In case of Portland cement concrete the bonding that takes place is by chemical reactions resulting due to combination of ionic, covalent and van der Waals forces. On the other hand, in fly ash based geopolymer composites bonding is initiated by thermal energy and chemical reaction. In both the cases, it is a constant volume hardening process. The parameters considered in case of geopolymer composites are binder, fluid content, age, curing condition, molarity of alkaline activator solution. It is observed that in both these materials the compressive strength development follow a definite path with respect to fluid-to-binder ratio by the variation of different parameters. A phenomenological model is developed by generalized Abrams' law to assess the strength. The model is further validated by using independent experimental data.

Assessing Maintenance Frequency For Building Envelope Using Building Condition Assessment

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2011

Issue: Sep-Nov

Title: Assessing Maintenance Frequency For Building Envelope Using Building Condition Assessment 

Author Name: Dhananjay Patil, A. R. Bhalerao 

Synopsis: 

Maintainability is “The ability to achieve the optimum performance throughout the lifespan of a facility within the minimum life cycle cost (LCC)”. As defined in order to achieve optimum performance maintenance tasks to be performed are important. And to do so time of occurrence of the task should be known, which can be obtained from the maintenance cycles of various components. Condition assessment is a procedure that uses an inspection process and analysis procedure for determining the condition of a building or group of buildings. Attempt is being made here to derive maintenance frequency for various building envelope components. 10 buildings from Mumbai were assessed and past data collection was done through complaint registers, checklist and interviews. Data collected was analyzed and overall condition of the components was derived in three levels as good, fair and bad, even maintained components showed sign of distresses and were in all the three categories. Past records and interviewed data was used to generate maintenance frequency which will facilitate for preparing preventive maintenance plans and budgetary 3 provision. As concluded by Dr.-Ing. Carolin Bahr in his research paper “Validation of Maintenance Cycles for Public Buildings” values given in literature regarding the different maintenance packages should be verified and adapted using real data, as the maintenance frequency is subjected to vary from building to building, result presented can be used as guidelines.

A Seasonal Autoregressive Model Of Vancouver Bicycle Traffic Using Weather Variables

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2011

Issue: Sep-Nov

Title: A Seasonal Autoregressive Model Of Vancouver Bicycle Traffic Using Weather Variables 

Author Name: Christopher Gallop, Cindy Tse , Jinhua Zhao 

Synopsis: 

This paper uses hourly bicycle counts and weather data that are continuous and year-round to model bicycle traffic in Vancouver, Canada. The study uses seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) analysis to account for complex serial correlation patterns in the error terms and tests the model against actual bicycle traffic counts. Temperature, rain, rain in the previous 3 hours and humidity are all found to be significant, with clearness found to be marginally significant at the 10% level. The combined effect of rain and its lags is close to 24% of the average hourly bicycle traffic counts, which is larger than the impact of it being a holiday or a Saturday, although the impact of it being a Sunday is still larger. An increase of one degree Celsius from the mean is generally found to increase bicycle traffic counts by 1.65%, so an increase of 10 degrees would increase bicycle traffic by 16.5%. The coefficients on humidity and clearness are small. A decrease in bicycle traffic of only 0.08% is observed per unit change in relative humidity and 0.62% at each of the four transitions between categories of cloudy to perfectly clear skies.

Behaviour Of Waste Plastic Fibre Reinforced Concrete Produced By Conventional Aggregates And Recycled Aggregates Under Acidic And Alkali Environmentan Experimental Investigation

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2011

Issue: Sep-Nov

Title: Behaviour Of Waste Plastic Fibre Reinforced Concrete Produced By Conventional Aggregates And Recycled Aggregates Under Acidic And Alkali Environmentan Experimental Investigation 

Author Name: Prahallada M.C, Prakash K.B 

Synopsis: 

The addition of fibres into concrete has been found to improve several of its properties like tensile strength, cracking resistance, impact, wear and tear, ductility, fatigue resistance etc. Many types of fibres like steel fibres, carbon fibres, GI fibres, glass fibres, asbestos fibres etc., can be used in fibre reinforced concrete. Waste plastics can also be used as fibres. The disposal of waste plastic is resulting in environmental pollution. Plastic is a non-biodegradable material, and it neither decays nor degenerates in water or in soil. On the other hand it pollutes the water and soil. Plastic if burnt releases many toxic gases, which are very dangerous to health. Such plastics can be used in concrete in the form of fibres to impart some additional desirable qualities to the concrete. This paper presents the results of waste plastic fibre reinforced concrete (WPFRC) produced from recycled aggregates subjected to acid and alkali attack. The different percentages waste plastic fibre used in the experimentation are 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5% and 3% with an aspect ratio of 50. The results are compared with the waste plastic fibre reinforced concrete (WPFRC) produced from granite aggregates.

A Review On R&D Efforts In Assessing The Traffic Generated Noise In Spatial Temporal Aspects On Highways

Vol. 1 No. 3

Year: 2011

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: A Review On R&D Efforts In Assessing The Traffic Generated Noise In Spatial Temporal Aspects On Highways 

Author Name: G.S. Vij, Shraddha Garg 

Synopsis: 

In rapidly urbanizing country like India, the transportation sector is growing in a fast pace and the number of vehicles on Indian roads is increasing at a rate of more than 7% per annum. This has led to over crowded roads and pollution.  Transportation sector is one of the major contributors to noise in urban area, which contributes 55% of total noise on highway. In view of this, it is essential to study highway noise with respect to various causative factors. Hence, various noise prediction models have been developed, throughout the world to assess its impact on to the society and the human beings. These traffic noise prediction models differ in some respects, but the overall methodology is similar. All the noise prediction models consists of evaluating basic noise levels and making series of adjustments to take into account geometric, traffic flow, barrier data etc.  In this paper, noise prediction models of U.S.A. and U.K. (FHWA and CORTON) along with the research efforts on noise in Indian context has been studied and discussed.

Case Studies Of Passive Cooling And Wind-Tower Design For School Building

Vol. 1 No. 3

Year: 2011

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Case Studies Of Passive Cooling And Wind-Tower Design For School Building 

Author Name: Dhananjay Patil, Shridhar S. Kumbhar 

Synopsis: 

Buildings account for an estimated 30 percent of the total energy consumption in India. Furthermore, the absolute figure is rising fast due to booming real estate demand and increasingly affluent lifestyle across various sections of society. In India, there are several showcase buildings such as a solar passive house in hot arid zones in India (Bansal and Minke, 1995) and a passive-cooled building for semi-arid zones (Srivastava et al., 1984) using wind tower, earth berms and evaporative cooling systems. Studying 3 cases where natural ventilation system has replaced/reduced use of mechanical cooling and saved energy. A wind tower is designed for a school building as overcrowded, poorly ventilated classrooms contribute substantially to the spread of infectious diseases, such as colds and influenza. Designed wind tower is for 2 classrooms with capacity of 40 students and area of 72 sq. m. resulted duct sizes for inlet and outlet are 0.20 sq. m. and 0.062 sq. m. respectively. 

Optimization of Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Genetic Algorithm

Vol. 1 No. 3

Year: 2011

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Optimization of Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Genetic Algorithm 

Author Name: Eswari, Raghunath , Kothandaraman 

Synopsis: 

A genetic algorithm is used to perform the discrete optimization of hybrid fibre reinforced concrete beams subject to a specified set of constraints. The objective function considered is the total cost of the materials. The Genetic Algorithm tries to minimize the cost for achieving required load carrying capacity, permissible deflection, ductility and average crack width for optimum combination of polyolefin and steel fibres. The input variables are breadth, depth, length, cost of polyolefin fibre, cost of steel fibre, ultimate load, ultimate deflection, ductility, average crack width are to be entered. The output of the given problem is Fibre volume ratio, Fraction of polyolefin fibre, Fraction of steel fibre, and Minimized cost. It is shown that the developed genetic algorithm obtained an optimal solution for hybrid fibre reinforced concrete beams.

Lateral Response of Pile Group

Vol. 1 No. 3

Year: 2011

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Lateral Response of Pile Group 

Author Name: Jasim M Abbas 

Synopsis: 

The main objective for this study is to determine the relationship between pile spacing and p-multipliers (fm - pile-to-pile modulus multiplier) for a laterally loaded pile-group.  In addition, the appropriate p-multipliers for a 3-pile group configuration at 2D, 4D, 6D and 8D pile spacing is also determined. Therefore, a three-dimensional finite element approach was used to assess the lateral pile and pile group response subjected to pure lateral load. Results of the influence of load intensities, group configuration, pile spacing are discussed in terms of response of load vs. lateral displacement, load vs. soil resistance and corresponding p-y curves. The improved plots can be used for laterally loaded pile design and also to produce the group action design p-multiplier curves and equations. As a result, design curves were developed and applied on the actual case studies and similar expected cases for assessment of pile group behavior using improved p-multiplier. A design equation was derived from predicted design curves to be used in the evaluation of the lateral pile group action. It was found that the group interaction effect led to reduced lateral resistance for the pile in the group relative to that for the single pile.

Determination of Infiltration Parameters for Urban Flood Modeling

Vol. 1 No. 3

Year: 2011

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Determination of Infiltration Parameters for Urban Flood Modeling 

Author Name: Sanat Nalini Sahoo, Sreeja 

Synopsis: 

The tremendous growth of infrastructure has reduced the precipitation accommodating capacity of urban areas. This has magnified the runoff volume and peak flow there by aggravating the flooding condition. So for an efficient flood management strategy to be followed, the infiltration process has to be modeled effectively and thus the runoff should be accurately predicted. For modeling of infiltration process the infiltration parameters are normally determined through model calibration or field measurements. In this study the infiltration rate of a locally available sandy soil has been obtained by using tension infiltrometer. Various infiltration parameters like steady state flows, saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivities and sorptivity at different suction heads were then derived. The tests have been conducted with different degree of compaction and saturation to recreate the natural field condition of the total urban catchment. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil was found out to be 0.00104cm/sec and 0.00016cm/ sec for suction head of 10cm and 20cm respectively for an oven dried soil of dry unit weight of 1.48gm/cc. Since most of the infiltration models need one or more of the above mentioned infiltration parameters, the details obtained from this study would be quite helpful for flood modeling, by incorporating realistic infiltration characteristics of the catchment.

An Analytical study on Load-Deflection Response of Prefabricated Cage Reinforced Composite Beams

Vol. 1 No. 3

Year: 2011

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: An Analytical study on Load-Deflection Response of Prefabricated Cage Reinforced Composite Beams 

Author Name: Chithra, R. Thenmozhi , M.C.Ravathi 

Synopsis: 

Experimental studies have reported that Prefabricated Cage can effectively improve the flexural strength, ductility and deformation characteristics of Prefabricated Cage Reinforced Composite (PCRC) Beams. This paper presents an analytical solution to predict the load deflection response of PCRC beams. An equation for effective moment of inertia is proposed interms of uncracked and cracked moment of inertia of the section. A reduction factor ß is also introduced in the equation to account the influence of percentage of steel and yield strength of steel. Experimental results from literature were employed to validate the analytical results. The findings show that the theoretical analyses are in good agreement with the test data in load—deformation curves upto yielding of steel. The theoretical deflection calculated at service load has a reasonably good agreement with the experimental results, which demonstrates the present closed-form solution is simple yet accurate. The analyses also show the deformation characteristics of PCRC beams is significantly influenced by the percentage of tension steel.

Effect of Alkali activator/ Fly ash ratio on Strength and Workability of Low lime Fly ash based Geopolymer concrete

Vol. 1 No. 2

Year: 2011

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Effect of Alkali activator/ Fly ash ratio on Strength and Workability of Low lime Fly ash based Geopolymer concrete 

Author Name: Siva Konda Reddy, J.Varaprasad , K. Naveen Kumar Reddy 

Synopsis: 

This paper presents the effect of Alkali activator / Fly ash ratio (A/F) on strength and workability of geopolymer concrete prepared from low lime based fly ash and a mixed alkali activator of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solution. The workability of concrete is found to be increasing when the A/F ratio is increased. An increase in compressive strength of the concrete samples is observed when the A/F ratio is increased for the samples cured at 60oc.

Numerical Analysis of Damage Propagation for Shaped Charge Jet Impacts into a Concrete Target

Vol. 1 No. 2

Year: 2011

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Numerical Analysis of Damage Propagation for Shaped Charge Jet Impacts into a Concrete Target 

Author Name: Joseph Indeck, AndrewThompson , Seokbin Lim 

Synopsis: 

Jet impacts, from a conical shaped charge, onto a brittle concrete target were examined utilizing the numerical analysis software AUTODYN® to identify a general damage propagation trend.  In order to understand general damage propagation, parameters other than penetration depth were used.  Specific parameters including the impact angle and jet coherency were varied.  Since concrete is a heterogeneous material that contains large amounts of impurities, voids, and non-linear material characteristics, the study of damage propagation is an important topic in various applications areas.  A simplified numerical analysis of the impact event was accomplished as a preliminary study to understand the relationship of a shaped charge jet impact and subsequent damage propagation behaviors.  It was identified that the particulated jet, after elongation, creates more substantial damage propagation characteristics than that of solid jets.