Abstract

The expansive soil problems lead to structural and geotechnical engineering challenges all over the world. Expansive soils are the type of soils which their volume changes considerably depend on their water content. It is worth mentioning that, the expansive soil problems can occur in both humid environments and arid/semi-arid soils.

Buildings, roads, pipelines, and other structural members have always been subjected to damages resulted from expansive soils which this damage is even more than twice the damage resulted from floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes. Understanding the behaviour and characteristics of these types of soils can help scientists control the imposed damages to the structure. This paper is a comprehensive study on expansive soils, its nature, shrinkage-swell behaviour, as well as expansive soil causes and treatments.

Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the behaviour of Ultra High Strength Self Compacting Fiber Reinforced Concrete using quartz sand and quartz powder. The investigation is done to obtain the mechanical properties of Ultra High Strength Self Compacting Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHSSCFRC) by using the partial pozzolanic admixture, i.e. quartz powder, in addition to the use of hooked end steel fibers and complete replacement of river sand with quartz sand. In recent world, strength and flow ability in heavy reinforced structures have become a major issue. To boost up the strength, mineral admixtures like micro silica is added and the water-cement ratio has been drastically reduced. To overcome the reduction of water content, chemical admixtures are added in less dosage. The chemical admixture like superplasticizer and viscosity modifying agent increases the flow ability without segregation. Due to depletion of natural resources, we have to work at alternate fine aggregate. Hence it is required to use alternate materials like quartz sand to obtain more durability. Quartz sand has more resistance against acidic content in nature and high temperatures. The paste prepared by using quartz sand and quartz powder is much denser than the paste prepared by river sand, which easily flows in and compacts itself even in heavy reinforced structures. The study revealed that quartz powder and quartz sand can be used for developing UHSSCFRC by reducing water content and satisfy the flow properties according to EFNARC. The test result for acceptance characteristics for self compacting concrete such as slump flow, v-funnel, and L-box are presented. Further, the strength characteristics for 7 days, and 28 days are also presented.

Abstract

Conventional normal weight Portland cement concrete is generally used for pavement construction. The impervious nature of the concrete pavements contribute to the increased water runoff into the drainage system, over-burdening the infrastructure and causing excessive flooding in built-up areas. Pervious concrete is a special type of concrete with a high porosity, used for concrete pavement applications that allows water from precipitation and other sources to pass directly through, thereby reducing the runoff from a site and allowing ground water recharge. In order to develop material specification for pervious concrete, it is necessary to conduct testing to evaluate the performance of this new type of high-performance concrete. Pervious concrete is sometimes referred to as “no-fines” concrete. In this study, the fine aggregate is used in various proportions such as 0%, 10% in the mix and the variation in the properties are studied. Properties such as density, void content, compressive strength, are studied for M20 grade by considering the w/c ratio as 0.34 and the design is done based on ACI 522 R10. From these studies, it is observed that the void content got decreased and the compressive strength got increased by the increase in fine aggregate percentage.

Abstract

Fixing of the cropping pattern in a project command is a difficult task. In the early stages, the cropping proposed is paddy under the irrigation project for the entire command area and also supply wettings, if required to the dry crops grown with other sources. Subsequently, the water was also supplied to the dry crops and these crops are known as irrigated dry crops. The crops considered should be suitable for the soils in the command and should also reflect the requirements and traditions of that area. Furthermore in the present scenario, water has become a scarce commodity where the planning should be such that the water utilization is minimum with good returns from agriculture. Optimization techniques are being extensively used to decide the cropping pattern by keeping in view of the minimum requirement of water and maximization of returns. In this paper, a case study of the medium project in the Godavari catchment in the reach of Sriramsagar and Inchampalli is considered. In the existing cropping pattern method, optimization is used to minimize the water requirement. This study indicates that this technique is helpful fixing the suitable cropping pattern for the proposed project.

Abstract

Andhra Pradesh which is known as the “Rice Bowl” of India has a lot of development for the irrigation and water resource projects, for which accurate measurement of crop water requirement is required. To estimate the crop water requirement, evapotranspiration should be measured accurately. From many researches carried worldwide in the past revealed that FAO-56 Penman-Monteith method is the universally accepted method for estimation of evapotranspiration in any climatic conditions. This method requires huge data sets, therefore many empirical methods have been developed which require less numbers of inputs such as temperature based methods, radiation based methods, and mass transfer methods. In many places of the study area, the data required for the calculation of evapotranspiration by standard method are not available. Hence, there is a great area of interest for evaluating the best empirical method which is most suitable for these areas. So, here in this study an attempt is made to evaluate the best empirical method for semi arid regions of the study area. Four temperature based methods, four radiation based methods, four mass transfer methods and two simplified methods were proposed by Valiantza's for reduced data sets. A total of 14 methods were used in this study.

Abstract

Road Safety Audit is a formal procedure for assessing accident potential and safety performance of new and existing roads. Road safety Audit is an efficient, cost effective and proactive approach to improve road safety and it has potential to save lives. The frequency of traffic collision in India is amongst the highest in the world. In 2015, one person dies every 4 minutes in road accidents in India. The objective of the study is to present some basic concepts of Road safety Audit for the major roads in Bengaluru in the state of Karnataka in India. The numbers of road accidents in Bengaluru are about 10% of the total accidents in Karnataka. Hence, there is a requirement of Road Safety Audit to reduce the accidents. The Road Safety Audit is aimed at reducing the injuries, fatalities, deaths, etc., due to road accidents. In order to develop road safety measures, it is required to collect accidents’ data, traffic volume data, and analyzing the data to identify the Black Spots and ranking the black spots based on the deficiencies of safety measures and identify most accident prone location by Equivalent Property Damage Method (EPDO). At black spots, the cause for the accident is identified and remedial measures are proposed to reduce the fatality and the number of accidents. After conducting the Road Safety Audit, it is found that the vehicles parked on road side reduces the effective width of road and affect the fast moving traffic, and the location of bus stop also affect the traffic. Along with this, the road geometry and the poor sign boards will also affect the safety measure.

Abstract

A steep rise in the volume of traffic in major metropolitan cities led to congested and jam packed roads. In order to avoid these situations, now-a-days, the traffic engineers are designing vehicle oriented roads which has risked the safety of pedestrian traffic in the highly populated urban areas. The present study was conducted at three major intersections of Bengalaru. The study aims at finding a walkable environment for pedestrians with minimum pedestrian-vehicle interaction. In order to determine Pedestrian Level of Service, a set of qualitative data was collected by devising a questionnaire and quantitative data was analyzed by Highway Capacity Manual method. Questionnaire data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis method and walking speed, and volume was used to find the Pedestrian Level of Service by Highway Capacity Manual method. After analyzing from Highway Capacity Manual and Questionnaire Survey method, the pedestrian level of service was determined at the intersections and it was found that the study area is not an ideal location for pedestrians to travel as they perceive the area is unsafe. By providing the necessary facilities, it is possible to increase the walking speed and decrease the cost of travel.