Civil Engineering

Gate valve are traditionally used for controlling the discharge in pipes. The valve is operated by rotating the wheel provided on the top a rod which is also connected to circular disc on other side of it. Every single rotation of wheel produces specific linear movement of disc which in turn tends to change the area of flow. It is expected that for same disc position, the discharge should be same, but the analysis showed that the discharge varied considerably. Further analysis repeated that it is happening on account of the fluctuating separation zones formed on either side of the disc. To address this issue, it is proposed to use a flexible membrane pipe inside the gate valve. This membrane will not allow the separation zone to form, as its shape will automatically change depending upon the disc position and intensity of discharge. It is similar to that of venturimeter with dynamically changing convergent and divergent cones. With this new adaption an experimental setup is fabricated with 1 inch pipe. Thus results have shown excellent improvement in the relationship between disc position and discharge. Further it is calibrated with respect to rotation angle of wheel. The experimental study has shown that the new gate valve can also be used as flow measuring device. The paper describes the journey of gate valve from flow control device to flow measuring device.

Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures get deteriorated due to numerous reasons like cracks, cover concrete spalling, large deflection, etc. The identified the factors responsible for these deteriorations are due to increasing load, rebar corrosion, earthquake occurrence, environmental effects and accidental impact on the structure. It is always preferable to strengthen the structures rather than rebuild them. Therefore, repair and rehabilitation have become an increasingly important challenge for the reinforced cement concrete structures in recent years. The tools such as STRAP, ETABS, ANSYS, and STAAD play pivotal role in the detailed analysis of RC structures. It was intended to model the stiffness of RC beam attached with external truss using STAAD Pro. The result indicates that the strengthening of RC beams with external truss could provide an appreciable increase in the stiffness of reinforced concrete beams. It is evident that the stiffness and strength of the beams strengthened with external truss substantially increased up to 4250 kN.m. Also the results of stiffness according to theoretical calculation were found to be almost similar to that of STAAD results.

The development of self-compacting concrete (SCC) was a significant step towards effectiveness at building sites, realistically producing prefabricated concrete rudiments, improved working conditions and better quality and emergence of concrete structures. By addition of fibres to SCC, bar reinforcement can be replaced and the performance of concrete structures improved. Self-compacting fibre reinforced concrete (SCFRC) combines the benefits of SCC in the fresh state and an enhanced performance of fibre reinforced concrete in the hardened state. With the special characteristics of SCFRC new fields of application can be explored. The objective of the study is to determine and do the comparative study of the properties of concrete containing no fibres and concrete with fibres, as well as the comparison on the effects of different type and aspect ratio of fibres to the self compacted concrete. This investigation was carried out using several tests, which included workability tests of SCC, compressive test, indirect tensile test and flexural test.

In recent years, coincide with population growth and industrial expansion, in many countries in the world, Extract water of underground sources expanded and annual withdrawal of ground water is higher than the annual feeding. This means extracting and using the water in layers that has been saved over thousands of years in the underground. Consequently groundwater levels in the area will be extracted every day and eventually drop where the water will not exist. While proper management and control of these resources will eliminate the problems of drop in water level. One way to managing groundwater resources is artificial recharge of groundwater and determine suitable locations for these purpose. growth and development trend of Mashhad city and excessive Extracting of ground water in recent years, has been essential groundwater resources management strategy in the region more than ever implied. The purpose of this study is Zoning Mashhad watershed for artificial recharge of underground aquifers using TOPSIS Model and GIS technique. TOPSIS algorithm is a Multi Criteria Decision Making, a type of compensatory model and an adaptable subgroup with strong ability to solve multi alternative problems because of having ability to overlap indicators in weak and power points . In this model, if quantitative criteria can change in to qualitative criteria, qualitative criteria can be used besides quantitative criteria. In aforementioned model, it is supposed that each indicator and criterion has steady increasing and decreasing utility in decision making matrix; it means if criteria gain more positive amount, they will be more appropriate, on the contrary the more negative amount, the less appropriate. The result and findings of different studies show that in TOPSIS method, zone 3 with (0/669) point promotes in first rank among 5 studied zones and thus it is the most appropriate zone to establish the proper area for artificial recharge of underground aquifers , in contrast zone 1 with (0/302) point goes down to the last rank and so it isn`t suitable for establishing damp and zones (4,2,5) with (0/650, 0/450, 0/325) points are located in next ranks.

This study represents the largest of its kind to evaluate the Rural Road Pavement Performance (RRPPS) in Andhra Pradesh in co-operation with the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA), for sponsoring the research project. Rural roads not only account for a major portion of national road networks, but also play a very vital role in the socio-economic growth of a country. Realizing this fact, in the present study an attempt has been made to assess the condition of rural road under varied climatic and environment conditions to assess their performance. To fulfill the objectives three districts namely Warangal, Guntur and Kurnool were selected for pavement evaluation study purpose. Based on the extensive field study and analysis it is concluded that rutting values over a season increases. This is due to the ingress of moisture content in base sub base and sub-grade layers. A correlation between the allowable number of Load repetitions to limit permanent deformation and compressive vertical strain on the top of the sub-grade was developed. Further it is observed that most of the roads have Pavement Serviceability Index (PSI) values below two indicating the need for immediate maintenance. Finally a model to predict the distress and condition ratings of the pavement was proposed.

Dredged sediments cause serious problems for managers of the port of Oran due to lack of storage areas on land, so the solution chosen is a dumping at sea. The present study is based on the characterization of sediments collected from different docks of the port of Oran. Results obtained have allowed delineating two areas of contamination. Contaminated sediments are dangerous wastes. For sediments contaminated with organic and inorganic pollutants, the chemical treatment with a phosphate is proposed for a reuse as sand in mortars. The results led to the conclusion of the technical feasibility of this solution.

Delay is considered as a main problem in civil projects of Iran. Ending the construction of dam in determined time is of high importance in terms of huge capitals invested in dam building projects. The present study has attempted to manage crisis of embankment dams in terms of construction delay reduction. To this end, a questionnaire has been distributed among 50 employers, consultants and contractors of embankment dams’ construction projects. The obtain data has been processed in SPSS software. As the research findings reveals, accelerating the trend of privatizing embankment dams’ construction projects, prioritizing technical and financial capabilities compared to the prices suggested by contractors and supplying required credit to pay lands losses lead to the decrease of construction delay of embankment dams.

South Africa (SA) has the most developed and largest economy in Africa. Being one of the members of BRICS our country is recognized as a key developing market. The factors that support this are its well-structured legal, financial transport and communication regions. SA is regarded as the best facilitator in trade logistics and has an excellent transport infrastructure. However, there are a few factors that have caused stagnation such as labor policies, unemployment, poverty and inequality. A recent article stipulated that rail was 75% cheaper on average than using road transport (Signs of new era for SA rail, 2015). If SA seeks to keep ahead of its African and Asian rivals and achieve global industrial competitiveness, its transport sector needs to sharpen up its act. The total road network in SA is approximately 747 000 km and is the longest in Africa which caters for approx. 321 056 registered trucks. The building together with maintenance of 16 200km of provincial roads are carried out by South African National Roads Agency (Sanral), with the Department of Transport being overall responsible. Despite the road sector delivering freight playing a major part in our economy due to its flexibility, adaptability and speed as compared to rail, the impact on the roads due to heavy freight moving vehicles has caused the maintenance and upgrades cost to escalate whilst our traffic demands are increasing. The operators in the industry of road freight face many challenges such as increases in tariff, permits and license fees. Further the e-tolls are weakening the profit margins. Labour negotiations and industry strikes have hit the sector hard, causing many businesses to undergo major restructuring and retrenchments. During 2013 the road freight industry shrunk by 4000 vehicles, resulting in the loss of 9315 jobs in the sector (Investment still needed in transport infrastructure, 2014).

Maximum velocity of particles and specifying pattern for energy radiation and nature of frequency as a result of explosions is regarded as most important criterion for evaluating dangers as a result of trembling earth. Based on researches it is indicated that these parameters may indicate possible damage. Until now different relations are offered for calculating these parameters by researchers but none of them has application in all of the fields and each of them in accordance with regional conditions including geology, tectonic and rock mechanics may have application at that special region. In these studies by registering and processing seismographs related to seismic data as a result of 20 explosion at Jamishan reservoir dam located at Sangher the status of vulnerability of diversion tunnel and cutoff wall of dam and also adjacent village was studied and the results are analyzed based on received data and comparing with available standards and the best method of boring and level of explosive materials for preventing from possible damages are offered.

In recent years, water exploitation has become greater for many reasons such as population growth, industrial development, urbanization growth and consequently increased demand for food products. Hence the rate of exploitation and consumption ground water become greater than recharge of them, in other words input of ground water system is less than its output and system with negative balance sheet has positive feedback and it is collapsing. Thus it is very significant to determine the suitable position for Artificial Recharge of ground water. One of the management methods for water resources is Multi Criteria Decision Making. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a structured technique for dealing with complex decisions that was developed by Thomas L. Saaty in the 1980 year. It provides a comprehensive and rational framework for structuring a decision problem, for representing and quantifying its elements, for relating those elements to overall goals, and for evaluating alternative solutions. The base of this model is comparing variables by pair wise by Matrix relationship. In this way, pair wise of the effective variables on the concrete Pavement were considered and based on relative weights the output was extent. In the present research, combination of Indexing system Method with Analytical Hierarchy Process has been applied to assess the Selection of most appropriate area to establish soil damp for artificial recharge of underground aquifers. The findings of the research show that zone 3 with 0/3606 points promotes in first rank among 5 studied zones and thus it is the most appropriate zone for Artificial Recharge of ground waters, in contrast zone 5 with 0/1731 point goes down to the last rank and so it isn`t suitable for Artificial Recharge and zones (2,4,1) are located in next ranks.