i-manager's Journal on Civil Engineering (JCE)


Volume 5 Issue 2 March - May 2015

Research Paper

PCI based Maintenance with Nonlinear Deterioration Rate

Rafiqul A. Tarefder* , Md Mostaqur Rahman**
* Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
** Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Civil Engineering, University of South Carolina,Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Tarefder,R.A., and Rahman,M. (2015). PCI based Maintenance with Nonlinear Deterioration Rate. i-manager’s Journal on Civil Engineering, 5(2), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.26634/jce.5.2.3348

Abstract

In this study, maintenance solutions for 19 airport pavements in New Mexico are derived based on Pavement Condition Index (PCI) and nonlinear deterioration rate. In a Pavement Management System (PMS), PCI indicates the functional condition of the pavement. In this study, a specific maintenance treatment is applied when the PCI value of a pavement section reaches a minimum defined value or cutoff value. Using system dynamics modeling, modules to quantify the benefit and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) were developed and utilized to determine the relative benefit and life cycle treatment cost of a maintenance solution or treatment. This study indicates that airports with higher initial PCI have lower functional benefit and lower LCC for maintenance solutions of different PCI improvement or PCI rises. Benefit and cost are determined using two different system dynamic modules developed in Powersim and then benefit and cost are compared using developed design charts. Benefit cost ratio (BCR) design charts are capable of showing the BCR for airport pavements having initial PCI 30 to 80, cutoff-PCI 10 to 80 and rise 10 to 40. For PCI rise 30 and 40, initial PCI 60, 70 and 80 have shown almost the same BCR for a different cutoff-PCI.

Research Paper

Design and Analysis of Roller Compacted Concrete Pavements for Low Volume Roads in India

S. Krishna Rao* , P. Sravana**, 0***
*Research Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
**Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
*** Professor, Daita Madhusudana Sastry Sri Venkateswara Hindu College of Engineering, Machilipatnam. AP, India
Rao,K.S., Sravana.P., and Rao,C.T. (2015). Design and Analysis of Roller Compacted Concrete Pavements for Low Volume Roads in India. i-manager’s Journal on Civil Engineering, 5(2), 9-15. https://doi.org/10.26634/jce.5.2.3349

Abstract

Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) is an innovative pavement material for the construction of low volume rural roads. RCC can easily overcome the problems usually observed in the construction of flexible bituminous pavements. RCC is the commercial name used for concrete placed with conventional hot mix bituminous paving equipment compacted with vibratory rollers.RCC pavements are highly rigid and hence eliminates the high deformation problems such as rutting and corrugations generally encountered in flexible pavements. For rural development in India, connectivity of rural roads is an important aspect; but many rural roads such as ODR (Other District Roads) and VR (Village Roads) are of poor quality, potholed, and unable to withstand the loads of heavy farm equipment. Two construction techniques are available i.e., rigid and flexible. Of these, selection of type of construction depends on the sub-grade soil types, rainfall, traffic pattern and availability of construction materials. In the present paper, the design and analysis of RCC Pavements have been considered in place of conventional Cement Concrete Pavements and Bituminous pavements. The flexural strengths of Roller compacted concrete of 4.5MPa, 5.0MPa and 5.5MPa are considered for design and analysis. Design curves for low volume roads are presented. Proposed RCC pavement is suitable for sub-grade having low modulus of reaction.

Research Paper

Prediction of Compressive Strength of Concrete by Data-Driven Models

Faezehossadat Khademi* , Mahmoud Akbari**, Sayed Mohammadmehdi Jamal***
* Graduate Student, Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA.
** Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran.
*** Graduate Student, Civil Engineering Department, University of Hormozgan, Hormozgan, Iran.
Khademi,F., Akbari,M., and Jamal,S,M. (2015). Prediction of Compressive Strength of Concrete by Data-Driven Models. i-manager’s Journal on Civil Engineering, 5(2), 16-23. https://doi.org/10.26634/jce.5.2.3350

Abstract

The aim of this study is prediction of 28-day compressive strength of concrete by data-driven models. Hence, by considering concrete constituents as input variables, two data-driven models namely Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models are constructed for the purpose of predicting the 28-days compressive strength of different concrete mix designs. Comparing the two models illustrates that MLR model is not a suitable model for predicting the compressive strength; however, ANN can be used to efficiently predict the compressive strength of concrete.

Research Paper

Water Requirements of Selected Crops in Kunigal Command Area

Nithya B.K* , Shreedhar R**, A.V.Shivapur***
*P.G. Student, Water and Land Management, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi, Karnataka, India.
**Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Department, KLS Gogte Institute of Technology, Belagavi, Karnataka, India.
***Professor, Water and Land Management, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi, Karnataka, India.
Nithya.B.K., Shreedhar .R., and Shivapur.A.V. (2015). Water Requirements of Selected Crops in Kunigal Command Area.i-manager’s Journal on Civil Engineering, 5(2), 24-30. https://doi.org/10.26634/jce.5.2.3351

Abstract

A study is carried out to determine the crop water requirement of some selected crops for the command area in Kunigal taluk. These crops include rice, pulses, groundnut, sugarcane and millet (ragi). Crop water requirement for each of the crops is determined by using 30-year climatic data in CROPWAT. Reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) is determined using the FAO Penman Monteith method. For all the crops considered, three decades: decades I, II, and III and seven crop growth stages: nursery, nursery / land preparation, land preparation, initial stage, development stage, mid-season and late season stage are considered. The study shows that for the area under study, reference evapotranspiration (ETo) varied from 3.11 to 5.29 mm/day. Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and crop water requirement for sugarcane varied from 1.61mm/day to 3.46mm/day and 0.0 mm/dec to 51.9 mm/dec, for ragi (millet) from 1.44 mm/day to 3.46 mm/day and 0.0 mm/dec to 2.6 mm/dec, for groundnut( rabi) from 0.66 mm/day to 4.45 mm/day and 0.0 mm/dec to 43.9 mm/dec, for groundnut (kharif) from 1.78 mm/day to 4.34 mm/day and 0.0 mm/dec to 14.6 mm/dec, for rice from 0.39 mm/day to 4.82 mm/day and 1.5 mm/dec to 184.9 mm/dec, and for pulses from 2.41 mm/day to 4.22 mm/day and 13.2 mm/dec to 38 mm/dec respectively. The gross water requirement is 939.14 mm/year with an application efficiency of 70%. Therefore the entire land area of 6572 ha requires 61.72 MCM. Thus the dam can conveniently supply the water required for irrigation in the area.

Research Paper

Optimization of Pipe Network Design using Genetic Algorithm

Sanjay Kumar Srivastava* , Rajesh Kumar**, Prabhat Kumar Singh Dikshit***
** Ph. D. Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering. IIT (BHU), Varanasi, India.
** Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering. IIT (BHU), Varanasi, India.
*** Professor, Department of Civil Engineering. IIT (BHU), Varanasi, India.
Srivastava,S,K., Kumar,R., and Dikshit,P,K,S. (2015). Optimization of Pipe Network Design using Genetic Algorithm. i-manager’s Journal on Civil Engineering, 5(2), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.26634/jce.5.2.3352

Abstract

A good water distribution system (WDS) continues to deliver water at all nodes of pipe network to fulfill various water pressure and demand conditions. In this paper, the authors used Genetic Algorithms (GA), a methodology for optimizing pipe networks. A computational code has been developed using Matlab software for optimization of pipe network. To ensure the validity of the code developed, it was tested with the Gessler (1985) pipe network design. This tested code can be further used for design and analysis of pipe network.