Civil Engineering

<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

Worldwide, solid waste disposal is a serious problem rising day by day with the increase in population. Open dumping and incineration is a common practice for municipal solid waste disposal in India and other developing countries. This practice raises the acute pollution problem as well as a health risk. There is an urgent need for sustainable techniques to address this problem to generate a minimal impact on the environment. There are many sustainable methods for solid waste management, viz., sanitary landfilling, composting, vermicomposting, anaerobic digestions, and ethanol production. Among all the microbes and biological agents are playing a very important role. This chapter presents a detailed review of solid waste management and sustainable solution to this problem with the help of microbes and biological agent. © 2021 Scrivener Publishing LLC.

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(SoE) School of Engineering

Environmental and Agricultural Microbiology: Advances and Applications

Role of microbes and microbial consortium in solid waste management

Interface modeling is one of the important components in the numerical modeling of soil–structure interaction problem. It is equally important as material and geometrical modeling. Inaccurate modeling of the interface between the soil and the structure may lead to unreliable results. However, in many cases, interface modeling is overlooked and the interface between the soil and the structure is generally modeled as a rigid connection. In the present paper, we have shown the influence of interface modeling in the analysis of laterally loaded deep foundations. A finite element model of laterally loaded foundation–soil system is developed wherein the foundation is modeled as a linear elastic system and the soil as nonlinear which is defined by the multi-yield surface plasticity model. The interface between the soil and the foundation is modeled using zero thickness contact element, which is defined, by constitutive relationships capable to define sliding and separation mechanisms at the interface. The results obtained from the proposed finite element model are then compared with the conventional approach of interface modeling. The present study indicates that the conventional approach overestimates the lateral load capacity of deep foundation as well as it is unable to explain the mechanisms of the deformation of laterally loaded foundation–soil system. © 2021, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Significance of Interface Modeling in the Analysis of Laterally Loaded Deep Foundations

The piezoelectric impedance transducer is widely used for damage detection and identification of civil/mechanical infrastructure using the electro-mechanical impedance technique, in which structural equivalent impedance is derived from the piezoelectric coupled admittance signatures of the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patches bonded to the structure via adhesive bond. In Piezo-elastodynamic model, the bonding layer has significantly altered the overall performance of the electro-mechanical admittance signature. This paper presents the evaluation and detection of structural damage using continuous shear lag model. A three-dimensional (3D) finite element model (FE) has developed to find the effective point-driven impedance, which further integrate into continuum shear lag model to obtain the piezoelectric coupled signature. The continuum-based signatures for different damage model were compared with existing impedance-based shear lag model to highlight the efficiency and accuracy of continuum model towards damage detection process. The simulated signatures were compared with experimental signature, found satisfactory matching. From this study, it has found the continuum strain has more sensitive towards different damage levels in the host structure. © 2021, Krishtel eMaging Solutions Private Limited.

Journal of Vibration Engineering and Technologies

Investigation of a Continuum Shear Lag Model as an Indicator for the Damage Detection in Piezo-Elasto Dynamic Structure

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.

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

The seismicity of the National Capital Region (NCR) of India increased significantly over the last decade. Communities in the NCR face significant exposure to damaging seismic events, and the seismic risk arises not only from the region’s proximity to the Himalayan mountains, but also from the socioeconomic vulnerabilities in its communities and the current capacities of different localities to respond to and recover from any unforeseen large seismic event. GIS-based spatial distribution of exposure to seismic hazards (SH) can help decision-makers and authorities identify locations with populations at high seismic risk, and to prepare risk-mitigation plans. Socioeconomic vulnerability (SeV) studies serve as a basis for quantifying qualitative measures. For this purpose, in the present study, the hazard of place (HoP) model is used to assess SeV to seismic hazards in the NCR. Social indicators like age, gender, literacy, family size, built environment, etc., comprising a total of 36 variables, are used to assess a socioeconomic vulnerability index (SeVI) based on factor and principal component (PCA) analyses. Based on PCA, 20 variables were retained and grouped into four factors: socioeconomic status, employment status, building typology, and family size. Ground-motion parameters, estimated from probabilistic seismic hazard assessment, are integrated with the socioeconomic vulnerability index to quantify exposure to seismic hazards. The spatial distributions in the produced socioeconomic-vulnerability index and seismic–hazard–exposure maps highlight the critical areas. The results reveal that areas of low literacy, high unemployment, and poor housing condition show moderate-to-high vulnerability. The south-eastern region of the study area is assessed as a high-risk zone by an integrated SeV–SH risk matrix. The results of this study emphasize the importance of the socioeconomic vulnerability component of disaster risk–reduction programs, from a holistic perspective, for the areas with high seismicity. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Fulltext

Sustainability (Switzerland)

Assessment of the socioeconomic vulnerability to seismic hazards in the national capital region of India using factor analysis

Porosity plays a significant role in concrete strength and durability. It also imparts the randomness in paste and aggregate bonding in cement concrete composite. The paper presents the optical evaluation and analysis of pores in cement mortar sample. The analysis has been done using microscopic images of a thin section of the cement mortar obtained from optical microscope. The mortar samples were prepared by varying its water–cement ratio, different batching process and substituting supplemental cementious material. The microscopic images have processed through ImageJ software for pore size evaluation and its distribution the surface of cement mortar sample. The classification of pores has been made based on its size and their formation for different water–cement ratio, batching processes and usage of cementious material. The overall results obtained through optical evaluation have satisfactory variation and significance in order to understand the progress of hydration and its conductive properties through non-destructive ways. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering

Pore Evaluation and Distribution in Cement Mortar Using Digital Image Processing

<p>Road networks are permanent manmade features altering the landscape structure and subsequently influence regional landscape ecology. Taking south-western foothills of Central Himalaya, as a case, this study assessed the spatio-temporal variations in landscape structure and landscape ecological risk (LER) influenced by the road network and topography. The relationship between LER and accessibility factors (distance to different road-types and road kernel density) and topographical factors (elevation and slope) were explored using ordinary least square (OLS) regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Our results indicate that high-risk LER zones are closer to the road network. This is also in conjunction with increasing built-up areas adjacent to the road network. Regression analysis using GWR model better explained the relationship between LER (dependent variable) and distance from different road-types (independent variables) as compared to OLS with a significant correlation at 1\% confidence interval. The spatial variations in the interrelation between dependent and independent variables were explained using quantified coefficients estimated by the GWR model. The estimation and visualization of spatial associations between landscape structure, LER, and road network provided in our study can act as a baseline for developing a guideline for sustainable infrastructure development and management of ecologically vulnerable landscapes across the tropical world. © 2020 Taylor &amp; Francis Group, LLC.</p>

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment

Spatio-temporal variations in landscape ecological risk related to road network in the Central Himalaya

Indian Railways is the fourth-largest railway network in the world by size, with 121, 407 kilometers of total track over a 67, 368-kilometre route. Mostly the railway tracks in India have joined by bolted and large welded joints, susceptible to derailment and fractures due to the longitudinal tensile stresses (hence strain) as the temperature falls below the distressing temperature. This problem caused from mechanical sources such as braking, rolling friction and wheel flanging on curves. Usually once them temperature varies anchoring temperature, causes the compressive and tensile stress in rail tracks and rail joints, more vulnerable to thermal buckling. This paper aims to characterize the in situ thermal stress detection for different rail and rail joints. The strain gauges were employed for strain monitor. This paper examines the potential of the strain gauges for in situ thermal stress levels for increasing temperature. For economical growing countries like India, railway infrastructure plays a critical role. The resistances were monitored for incremental thermal loading. © 2021 IEEE.

2021 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation, ICE/ITMC 2021 - Proceedings

Thermal and residual strain measurement due to gradual and repetitive thermal loading in rails and rail joints using ESG

The probabilistic seismic hazard analysis is conducted for the seismically active National Capital Region (NCR) of India, one of the most densely populated regions in the world, to quantify the peak ground acceleration (P GA) at bedrock level by considering seismogenic source characteristics, smoothened grid seismic zoning, magnitude recurrence model, uncertainties, and suites of suitable ground motion prediction equations. The spatial distribution of the resulting P GA value is presented using GIS for the entire NCR of India for 10% and 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years and 100 years. The estimated P GA values are found to vary in the range of 0.12 to 0.37 g and 0.15 to 0.40 g for a 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years and 100 years, respectively. And the P GA values range from 0.07 to 0.33 g and 0.08 to 0.35 g for the 10% probability of the exceedance in 50 years and 100 years, respectively. The results reveal that the eastern region of the study area falls under high seismicity due to its proximity to the Himalayan zone, a highly seismically active region. High P GA values are also observed for south-eastern regions of the NCR of India due to the vicinity of the Great-Boundary fault, Mathura fault, Moradabad fault. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk

Spatial distribution of bedrock level peak ground acceleration in the National Capital Region of India using geographic information system

Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering

Closure to “Evaluation of the Vapor Pressure Models in the Estimation of Actual Vapor Pressure and Evapotranspiration” by Hitesh Upreti and C. S. P. Ojha