<p>Shiv Nadar University is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric University offering a full range of academic programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, the University comprises of academic wings, sophisticated labs, international standard sports facilities, amphitheaters, auditorium, conference rooms and smart classrooms. The University&rsquo;s goal is to become internationally recognized for the quality of its research and creative endeavors and their applicability to improving quality of life, generating new insights and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge creativity. Committed to excellence in teaching, research and service, the University aims to serve the higher education needs of India and the world beyond.</p>

Shiv Nadar University

Improper waste disposal has resulted in rapid deterioration of the environment and the advent of fatal diseases. Carcinogenic substances that percolate into the ground deteriorate the quality of groundwater and soil. Moreover, pollution from large-scale burning of agricultural waste each time after the harvest season makes the goal of a healthy environment of utmost importance. Toxins, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metal contaminants, have several pathways to enter into the environment and bio-accumulate within living organisms. The objective of this study is to synthesise a substance that will break the source-receptor pathway resulting in cleaner water and soil. Biochar, through ion exchange or physical adsorption, has the capacity to adsorb heavy metal ions such as those of cadmium. The biochar was synthesised from biomass consisting of wheat straw, rice husk and bagasse. The biomass was then heated to temperatures ranging from 300 to 700 °C using the process of slow pyrolysis, in an environment in which the oxygen supply was limited. The samples were then subjected to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to ascertain the functional groups present followed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine the elements or form of metal oxides present in the samples. The samples were mixed with a known amount of cadmium solution, and the final testing was performed using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The final testing directly showed the heavy metal ion adsorption efficiencies of biochar derived from different types of biomass, giving an insight into the future scope of using biochar has a remediating agent © 2021, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Civil Engineering

(SoE) School of Engineering

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Remediation of Cadmium-Contaminated Soil Using Biochar Derived from Wheat Straw, Rice Husk and Bagasse

The spatial distribution of seismic site coefficients at Guwahati is presented in this article. Estimated site coefficients consider different site types in the city and several level of ground shaking consider average of probable seismic event. The evaluation of site coefficients is based on the standard penetration test data at 105 boreholes distributed over the city. Equivalent linear one dimensional site response analyses are performed to predict the site amplification and to determine the spectral acceleration response. Due to the unavailability of recorded ground motion data for the region, synthetic ground motions simulated at the bedrock level for the city corresponding to several combinations of magnitude (Mw) and source-to-site distance (R) are used as input excitation. Simulated synthetic ground motion data with varying levels of excitation have been used to take care of the uncertainties in the input ground motions. The analyses depict the modification of the seismic ground motion due to the presence of soil overlying the bedrock. © 2014, Capital Publishing Company.

Proceedings of the 16th International Association for Mathematical Geosciences - Geostatistical and Geospatial Approaches for the Characterization of Natural Resources in the Environment: Challenges, Processes and Strategies, IAMG 2014

Spatial distribution of seismic site coefficients for Guwahati city

Mumbai city is the financial capital of India and is fifth most densely populated city in the world. Seismic soil liquefaction is evaluated for Mumbai city in terms of the factors of safety against liquefaction (FS) along the depths of soil profiles for different earthquakes with 2% probability of exceedance in 50 yr using standard penetration test (SPT)-based simplified empirical procedure. This liquefaction potential is evaluated at 142 representative sites in the city using the borehole records from standard penetration tests. Liquefaction potential index (LPI) is evaluated at each borehole location from the obtained factors of safety (FS) to predict the potential of liquefaction to cause damage at the surface level at the site of interest. Spatial distribution of soil liquefaction potential is presented in the form of contour maps of LPI values. As the majority of the sites in the city are of reclaimed land, the vulnerability of liquefaction is observed to be very high at many places. ©2012 Author(s).

Fulltext

Natural Hazards and Earth System Science

Assessment of liquefaction potential index for Mumbai city

A method based on the application of Kötter's equation is proposed to evaluate active earth pressure on an inclined wall retaining horizontal cohesionless backfill with uniform surcharge. This method considers only the effect of surcharge for the analysis. It is successfully used to evaluate the magnitude and point of application of reaction on the failure surface. The coefficient of active earth pressure and point of application of the active thrust are computed for different combinations of soil and wall properties and the results are presented in dimensionless forms. A fairly good comparison is seen with the available solutions.

Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering

Active earth pressure on an inclined wall with horizontal cohesionless backfill due to surcharge effect

Mumbai city is the economical capital of India and is situated about midway on the western coast of stable continental region of Peninsular India. Major part of the city being of reclaimed land, the soil type is of alluvium, sand, and recent conglomerate. There are some bigger water bodies within the city range. In this study, an attempt has been made to study the susceptibility of soil liquefaction using simplified empirical procedure based on number of blow counts (N values) of the soil layers from standard penetration test. The liquefaction susceptibility is quantified in terms of factor of safety along the borehole depths at available borehole locations using earthquake-induced cyclic stress on the soil and the cyclic resistance of the soil to withstand the load. The factor of safety against liquefaction is evaluated at different sites for two peak ground acceleration (PGA) levels pertaining to 10 and 2 % probability of exceedance in 50 years corresponding to uniform hazard response spectra for Mumbai city with 475- and 2,475-year return period, respectively. Contour maps are prepared that display the factor of safety at different depths for earthquake magnitude of M w 6.5. These contour maps show the liquefaction vulnerability at different sites in the city. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Natural Hazards

Soil liquefaction studies at Mumbai city

The free field surface motion during an earthquake is governed by the characteristics of strong ground motions and the dynamic soil properties at a particular site. The soft soil deposits aggravate the seismic hazard due to the amplification of ground motion at some intensity level. In this article, seismic site response analysis is used to estimate the spatial distribution of surface level free field ground motion at Mumbai city due to multiple suites of input earthquake ground motions, scaled to conform to the target rock level uniform hazard response spectrum with minimum mean squared error. Free-field surface motion is found to be influenced by the softness of soil site and intensity of ground motion. Surface level free field motion due to excitation at bedrock level at each site is quantified in terms of spectral acceleration. Acceleration response spectra at selected natural periods and corresponding standard errors are computed and the results are presented in the form of contour maps. The spatial distribution of ground motion obtained in the form of contour maps will be useful in finding seismic coefficients to determine the design seismic forces and in identifying vulnerable places in Mumbai city. © 2011 ejge.

Spatial distribution of surface level free field motion at Mumbai city

In this article, stochastic finite-fault simulation combined with site response analysis is used to understand the spatial distribution of ground motion in Guwahati city due to three damaging earthquakes. The rock level ground motion for the scenario earthquakes is generated based on the stochastic finite-fault methodology. These simulated motions are further amplified up to the surface by equivalent linear site response analyses using the available borelog data at 100 different locations in Guwahati city. A set of twenty simulated rock level time histories for each event, are used to compute the surface level ground motion. Response spectra are computed and the results are presented in the form of contour maps, at selected natural periods. The mean amplification due to local soil deposit is as high as 2.2 at most of the sites in Guwahati city. Based on these simulated motions, an average site correction factor is obtained for soil sites in Guwahati city. The standard error in the simulated response spectra is also reported. The contour maps obtained will be useful in identifying vulnerable places in Guwahati city.