CEST Club of NIT Rourkela

Introduction Many earthquakes in the past have left many lessons to be learned which are very essential to plan infrastructure and even to mitigate such calamities in the future. The hazards associated with earthquakes are referred to as seismic hazards. The practise of earthquake engineering involves the identification and mitigation of seismic hazards. Microzonation has generally been recognized as the most accepted tool in seismic hazard assessment and risk evaluation. It is defined as the zonation concerning ground-motion characteristics taking into account source and site conditions. Making improvements on the conventional macrozonation maps and regional hazard maps, the micro zonation of the ar region generates detailed maps that predict the hazard at much smaller scales. Seismic microzonation is the generic name for subdividing a region into individual areas having different potentials hazardous earthquake effects, defining their specific seismic behaviour for engineering design...

    Introduction ITS is an emerging transportation system which is comprised of an advanced information and telecommunications network for users, roads and vehicles. ITS is the integrated application of advanced Technologies using electronics, computers, communications, and advanced sensors. These applications provide travellers with important information while improving the safety and efficiency of the transportation system. Intelligent Transportation Technologies Wireless Communications: Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC): It offers communication between the vehicle and the roadside in specific locations (ex- toll plazas). Continuous Air interface Long and Medium range: CALM provides continuous communications between a vehicle and the roadside using a variety of communication media, including cellular and infra-red links. Intelligent Transportation Applications (1) Electronic Toll Collection: Today, most toll roads are equipped with an electronic toll-collecti...

Need for Cranes and the Risks Involved  Cranes have become an essential part of equipment for the construction of buildings and structures, especially as the height increases. The huge loads required to be lifted, and the heights that they have to be carried to often makes such operations fraught with risk. This risk increases when the operators also have to contend with extreme wind and weather conditions that can increase the stresses on the cranes. Quite often, the crane operations are very much part of the critical path activities on project sites. Thus, accidents can cause serious loss of productivity and affect project schedules to a great extent. Because of the heights and sizes of such construction cranes, areas around the construction site can also be at risk, especially in populated areas. It is quite a standard practice for cranes to be designed and built for a particular project so that any peculiarities regarding area to be covered, heights, materials to be lifted and ...

Introduction Modular construction is a broad category including several techniques, each with distinct characteristics and applications. Among these is volumetric modular construction. Volumetric Modular Construction is defined as the stacking and joining of factory finished modules to create a substantially complete building. The modules are fitted with windows, doors, electrical and plumbing conduits in the factory. All five sides are cast during a single pour creating a single room or multiple rooms in one go. Modular buildings are built with the same materials used in traditional construction. The structures are 60% to 90% complete prior to transportation and assembly at the final building site. It is used primarily in developed countries like US, UK, Japan, European countries and Australia for its benefits.   History The Crystal Palace, which was built for Britain's Great exhibition of 1951, remains one of the most famous examples of early modular construction. Designed in les...

INTRODUCTION: Of all the magnificence and grandeur that the tall skyscrapers and apartments possess, with time, they have become indispensable to meet the demands of the shelter of the ever-increasing population around the globe. Here we come across the term ‘high rise building’. This refers to a building whose height creates different conditions in the design, construction and use. Along-side the construction, the safety of the occupants has emerged as an essential aspect of the high-rise buildings. High-rise buildings are required to have a Fire Safety and Evacuation Plan in accordance with IFC 404. Design and Construction: Fire is the major concern of safety in the high-rise buildings. In the case of fire protection and effective evacuation, it has been quite evident that the design of the building plays an important role. A design where the influence of fire and smoke spread throughout the building is taken into consideration has become crucial. Evacuation of occupants, near the ...

 Introduction Electrochromism is the phenomenon where the colour or opacity of material changes when a voltage is applied. This is used to make electrochromic smart windows for skylights, facades, and curtain walls that can block ultraviolet, visible, or (near) infrared light instantaneously and on-demand. Electrochromic glass, which can be directly controlled by building occupants through integrated building automation, mobile and voice control, is popular for its ability to improve occupant comfort, maximize access to daylight and outdoor views, reduce energy costs and provide architects with more design freedom. Working principle An electrochromic material is made of transition metal oxides like tungsten trioxide (WO3). A 3-D nanoporous structure with "tunnels" is formed which allows dissociated ions ( H+, Li+) to pass through the substance when an electric field is applied. WO3 + n(H+ + e-) → HnWO3 A smart glass consists of 7 layers of which first and last are trans...

Introduction: Soil disintegration is one of the biggest environmental issues confronting the earth today, and the North-Eastern district of India, with substantial rainfall, is especially affected. Vetiver Grass system is a well-established arrangement for the assurance of soil slants from disintegration. It is utilized for this reason in more than 100 nations all through Asia, Africa, and America, where it is an easy, environmentally sustainable, and community-friendly arrangement.  Why this method? Conventional hard engineering interventions that mean to legitimately diminish disintegration are exorbitant and ecologically harmful. Thus vetiver, a C4 plant, has held up as a fantastic green solution to this circumstance. Vetiver, a plant elevated to preserve soil and water for agribusiness by the World Bank, advanced in the last part of the 1990s has turned into a significant soil bioengineering tool. The foundations of vetiver develop quickly and can accomplish a profundity of 3m ...

Introduction:-  A submerged floating tunnel, also known as submerged floating tube bridge, suspended tunnel, or Archimedes bridge, is a design for a tunnel that floats in water, supported by its buoyancy, self-weight, and constraint forces resulted from cable system and thus submerged to a certain depth underwater. It is a tube-like structure made of steel and concrete placed deep underwater to avoid water traffic and weather. It is designed to accommodate road or rail traffic.                      Construction:-  The concept of submerged floating tunnels is based on well-known technology applied to floating bridges and offshore structures, but the construction is mostly similar to that of immersed tunnels. Huge tunnel sections are prefabricated in a dry dock and the sections are moved to the site. The sections are then sealed, sunk into place while being sealed, and, when the sections are fixed to each other, the seals ...

Rise of The Planet of The Plastics From waking up to a ringing plastic alarm, drinking water from a plastic bottle, carrying a plastic bag to storing food in plastic containers, plastic has become an inseparable integral part of our lives.  Adversaries always follow up with excessive utilities. Plastic garbage is proving to be a menace across the country, clogging drains, choking voiceless animals, soil degradation, plastic has had been beneath all. Furthermore, plastic can be recycled only 3-4 times, and the melting process releases highly toxic fumes. Plastic Roads, The Indigenous Innovation Aimed to overcome the growing problem of plastic waste disposal the Government of India decided that all road developers in the country must use waste plastic, for road construction after the technology for this was developed by the ‘Plastic Man’ of India, Prof. Rajagopalan Vasudevan. He is a Professor of Chemistry at Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. He was awarded Padma Shree in ...

Introduction: Regardless of whether it is the rapidly spoiling food in our fridge or the pile of unwashed laundry in our washing machine, the importance of electricity cannot be overlooked. With the analysis of Benjamin Franklin in the mid-1700s and Michael Faraday in the 1870s, the perception of electricity as an energy source made social inhabitants attain a new climax concerning the amelioration of mankind. Electricity is one of the most prominent assets that science has conferred to the human race. Science has found out bricks as a source of electricity production using PEDOT.                                               Execution of the idea: It's been 5000 years since we figured out that baked clay hardens into bricks. These red bricks inside walls can produce enough current to light up a house for 5 hours. This idea involves the development of a scalable, cost-effec...

INTRODUCTION:  Smog is a kind of air pollution which is mainly the mixture of smoke and fog, responsible for reduced visibility, irritation, allergies, and could have a serious impact on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of our body. Being harmful to our body and being a potent pollutant, it needs to be treated effectively.  With growing air pollution and to treat smog effectively, few cities have come with buildings that would help reduce air pollution and have a check on it. These buildings are made up of special concrete called “smog-eating concrete” that would neutralize the atmospheric pollutants.  HISTORY:  Smog-eating concrete was developed in 2007, by the Italian cement company Italcementi, like a self-cleaning cement that, when mixed to create concrete, would make a self-cleaning concrete. It was only later that Italcementi noticed its pollution-killing quality. This is how they found out: They had topped off a road in Bergamo, Italy with TX Activ...

Global Demand:-  The urgent concern for global warming due to the emission of greenhouse gases has propelled scientists and engineers worldwide to search for alternate sources of renewable and clean energy. As locations for wind energy are filling up on-shore and near-shore, companies are deploying floating turbines that can be sited in deep waters. Floating wind farms consist of offshore wind turbines mounted on floating structures that allow the turbine to generate electricity in water depths.  History:- The concept of offshore wind turbines was first introduced by Professor William E. Heronemus at the University of Massachuttes Amherst in 1972. But it was not until the mid-1990s that the commercial offshore wind industry was established. The first floating wind turbines were set up by the Blue H Technologies of the Netherlands in December 2007. An 80 kW prototype 21.3 km off the coast of Apulia, Italy, was installed in water 113 m deep to get test data on wind and sea cond...

Introduction All living things heal themselves but ever imagined artificial things coming to life and healing themselves. As scary it might sound but when man-made constructions start healing themselves, they are more long-lasting than regular constructions. One such project is brought to reality by Nemkumar Banthia, a professor in the department of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and CEO of IC-IMPACTS.  The self-healing road project was brought to life in the town of Thondebhavi, outside Bangalore, connecting the small town to the rest of the country with a road design of 650m that resists heavy rains, intense heat, and poor drainage.  Construction  Self-healing roads are ultra-high-strength concrete reinforced with hydrophilic polyolefin fibers with advanced nano-coatings that are more resistant to cracking. They make use of locally sourced fly ash, a heterogeneous by-product material produced in the combustion process of coal used in power...

Introduction  In the heart of the city of El Giza stands the Giza Pyramid Complex, Necropolis, comprising of 3 pyramids:  Khafre,  Menkaure, and Giza. Though each was made for a different pharaoh, their aggregate plan is cohesive and intentional, as the course of action of these structures is perhaps a portrayal of the Orion constellation.  The Complex’s crown jewel is the Great Pyramid which is an enigma of technological puzzles. It was constructed from 2.5 million stone squares from across 500 miles in just 20 years which is especially stunning as they didn't have the utilization of wheels at that point. Planning and surveying  The Giza plateau is on entirely steady ground, comprising of nummulitic limestone from the purported Mokattam arrangement. However,  delving shafts and chambers on this hard ground are quite a hindrance for excavations. The Great Pyramid's corners aligned almost exactly with the points of a compass with a deviation of just 2' 28''....

What is a drone survey?                                                          Drones are continually proving to be a powerful tool in the fields of surveying and mapping by simultaneously providing efficiency and safety in a much more advanced way. A drone survey refers to the capture of aerial data by employing uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) such as DRONE. This provides topographic surveys of better quality compared to traditional methods with higher accuracy in measurements in a fraction of the time, reducing the surveying cost and human resources.   How is it Done?  The field to be surveyed is photographed several times from different angles, with the help Drone’s downward-facing sensors such as RGB and spectral cameras, and each image is tagged with coordinates. The height and cameras of the drone can be adjusted remotely along...

Introduction There is no doubt that ambient (or artificial) intelligence that aims to enhance the way we interact with the environment is shaping the world, and has impeccable effects in promoting safety and technology to enrich our lives. In civil engineering, Machine Learning (ML), has a very imperative role to play. The legendary architect, Le Corbusier wrote in 1923 that “a house is a machine for living,” and here he was referring metaphorically to the utilitarian purposes that home serves. Today, civil engineering structures are becoming more like machines, with the increasing incorporation of ML and AI in their construction.  Latest Developments •Nowadays the buildings can sense their occupants: their activities, needs, and routines. They also measure temperature, vibration, noise level, and much more. •Building information modeling(BIM) gives architecture, engineering, and construction professionals insights to efficiently plan, design, construct and manage buildings and inf...

Modular construction is the process where structures are made up of individual sections ("modules"), constructed in an offsite controlled manufacturing facility, and assembled at the final building site. The modules are fabricated using standard building construction materials.  The life expectancy for a modular building depends on how well they are maintained. Permanent modular structures do not have a limited life-span, while temporary structures have a life of 20-25 years, which could be extended if they are very well maintained. All modular buildings, no matter temporary or permanent, can be expanded, remodeled, and updated.  Advantages Of Modular Construction  · Reduced Costs:  Modular construction is more cost-effective than traditional on-site construction. Modular builders take benefit of economies of scale by building multiple similar pieces at once. Costs related to ladders and scaffolding are also get reduced.  · Quicker:  The nature of fac...

Civil Engineering: How it came to be Civil Engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the various works.  Civil Engineering as a separate educational field has come into existence only in the 19th century, however, the practice of construction dates back much further. Early humans lived like nomads, moving from place to place in search of food and water. However, according to researchers, some 12,000 years back humans abandoned this nomadic lifestyle and started agriculture. As the saying goes "Necessity is the mother of invention", as humans started settling down they needed shelter to protect themselves against harsh weather conditions. So, they started occupying the caves and thus began human civilizations. Sumer, located in Mesopotamia, is the first known complex civilization. Throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans without any for...

  Intro : -  An Advanced Underground Subway is essentially a facility that connects many busy places via a common route. It carries several small shops that can be used for industrial functions on both facets of the walkway. It additionally has an underground automobile parking facility which enables the people for better management of vehicles.   Inspiration: -   The proposal of Subway is in tune with the requirements of sustainability, it promotes tightly closed pedestrian movement and because of this circuitously promotes walkability in a city. It represents social fairness and makes street crossing invulnerable for college kids and senior citizens. This makes our life easy and travels safer. Benefits: - 1. It connects some of the busiest places within a region by decreasing the extent of pedestrian visitors above the floor. 2. This decreases the want for Traffic signals in the areas lying above the subway as the bulk of the pedestrian traffic uses the Subwa...

Starting From stone age days to stepping into the 21st century, Taking shelter in a small cave to living in a luxurious Skyscraper, Civilization has evolved a lot. With all the technical advancement, we are capable of doing things, which were beyond the scope of our imagination a century ago. Despite all this development, we still can’t conquer natural disasters. Earthquakes are one of the most devastating forces, in which the seismic waves traveling through the ground can annihilate buildings, take lives, properties, and can cost a tremendous amount of money and resources to restore normalcy. Why Does The Building Collapse? Buildings are generally prepared to handle vertical forces from their weight and gravity, they cannot handle side-to-side forces transmitted by earthquakes. This flat load during quakes vibrates floors, columns, bars, and the connectors that hold them together. The difference in movement between the foot and top of buildings creates extraordinary stretch, ca...