Urbanization Challenges in Emerging Economies: Resilience and Sustainability of Infrastructure

The modern world demands environment friendly, energy efficient designs along with economic building materials in the construction industry, which are key to sustainable buildings. This paper, through a case study conducted at Manipal region of Karnataka, India, compares and quantifies the thermal efficiencies of concrete, mud, and laterite on transmission loss/gain rate values with reference to the envelopes (exterior walls) of the building. The necessary data sampling for computation was done during the summer months of March and April 2017, involving parameters of thermal transmittance (U-value), thermal resistance (R-value), and thermal conductivity (K-value) pertaining to the construction materials comprising the walls along with temperature (internal and external) of various rooms in the building. The work summarizes the relationship between these parameters, transmission loss/gain rate, as well as the thermal efficiency. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that laterite is the optimum masonry unit for building construction in tropical regions such as South India.

Formulating waste management plans in the construction industry are difficult because of complex issues that may depend on the characteristics of the work force, type of equipment used, construction methods/technology adopted, management practices, and government policies in effect. Construction and demolition waste (C&D) need to be managed to minimize the environmental burden in India. Abundant techniques such as LEED, BREEAM focused on building design phase but suitable techniques have not been developed during the construction execution phase in Indian scenario. Addressing this problem is limited in its application due to various factors. Therefore, present study has been introduced to detangle and investigate various reasons for the failure of implementation of C&D waste management in their companies. The opinions on implementing waste management during execution stage were collected using questionnaire survey and results were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The significant factors enabling or deterring the implementation of site waste management plans are grouped into five categories. The factors have been modeled using structural equation modelling (SEM) to assess the path loadings of variables to their corresponding categories. The results concluded that variables relating to education of labor in workforce, preparation of excess perishable material in material category. No GST on equipment used for recycling in government policies, maintaining documents related to waste management in records and documents, analyzing alternate routes for waste disposal at site to avoid trafficking in onsite waste management category are found to have greater impacts in their corresponding categories. The outcomes from the study help the construction firms to explore in deep the barriers which lead to improvement as well as development of waste management policies in Indian construction industry.

The durability of a building structure is impaired due to damage caused by the structural elements while under construction. The damage is the result of an oversight of consideration of construction loads acting on partly built building frame in the design of building structure. The possible reason of oversight is non-availability of a specification for its consideration. The load combination which includes the construction load and the corresponding partial safety factors are proposed. The use of strength age factor is recommended for premature concrete receives the load due to construction activities.

Road construction involves emission of CO₂, greenhouse gases, and ultimately leads to global warming. India is one of the major contributors to the CO₂ emissions and is in the process to reduce it by 35% in the coming 15 years. Roads in India are paved with conventional hot mix asphalt (HMA) technique, which involves heating at elevated temperature (approximately 150-170°C). HMA production needs a large amount of energy and the release of CO₂ emission is also high. Therefore, an attempt should be made to develop and adopt alternative technologies for road construction and maintenance to reduce the consumption of fuel, heating temperature, aggregates, and binder. Warm mix asphalt (WMA) is a modern technology to discourse this issue, which reduces the energy requirement and the CO₂ emission. It reduces the heating temperature by 25-35% compared to HMA. In return, WMA reduces the CO₂ emission by 30% and saves valuable energy for sustainable development. WMA tends to provide a complete aggregate coating, high workability, and compaction at a lower temperature. The temperature reduction of WMA is achieved by decreasing the asphalt viscosity by adding some additives. In general, these warm mix additives are classified into two groups, namely water foaming and organic, based on the manufacturing process. The main aim of this review paper is to the elucidated overview of different technologies used in the manufacturing of WMA, to evaluate the performance of different additives, which are best suitable for the Indian conditions, and a detailed description with cost analysis and life-cycle analysis.

Elevated tank for water supply of any city needs to be operational both during and the aftermath of any natural hazards. Evidence of satisfactory past performance of a 105-year-old large elevated steel reservoir in Kolkata has been verified through its uninterrupted operation until today. This structure responded adequately against different natural hazards during its prolong lifetime. Among several features of the tank, the most important one is the tank isolation from its staging structure by series of timber planks. The effect of timber isolation system on the global behaviour of the tank structure in pre and post yield regime has been evaluated here. A time history analysis on the tank model with and without timber isolation has been performed under variable seismic ground motions. Parametric analyses showed that visco-elastic property of timber coupled with friction damping connection is effective to increase the damage control potential of the structure.

Tunnels in general represent a significant financial investment with challenging design, construction, and operational issues. Tunnels that are not adequately planned, designed, and constructed usually require more costly and extensive repairs. Tunnel life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a data-driven tool that provides a detailed account of the total costs of the project over its expected life. In order to realize an optimal trade-off between investment and maintenance of tunnel projects, LCCA should be applied. The main problematic issue is the water infiltration through the tunnel, which is described in detail in this paper. LCCA has several applications, including help in selecting the best alternative to meet a project objective. Lifecycle cost analysis is a dynamic process. The feasibility study on selecting a tunnel or bridges goes beyond costs and LCCA e.g. the geological conditions, duration of construction, environmental impact, technology availability, constructability, and ecological and even political consideration dominates the decision.

Cracking is one of the types of deterioration that frequently occurs on pavements. If there are cracks on pavements, not only travelling performance of vehicles declines but also passing vehicles are endangered by scattered pavement materials due to the cracks. Because of budget restriction etc., it is not easy for the expressway managers to frequently execute inspections of all the points on the expressway. Therefore, it is desirable that they intensively inspect the points in which cracking tend to occur and worsen with high probability. In this study, a methodology is proposed to utilize a large amount of image data, which have been able to be captured by recent progress in information processing technology, in an expressway in Japan, and to analyze the tendency of locations where cracks are likely to develop. The authors found that there are some characteristics which cause many cracks.

Rural roads are one of the significant aspects which contribute to the social and economic well-being of rural households. They assist in overall development and welfare of the rural inhabitants. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is one such initiative taken by Government of India with a view of developing rural regions. It has been launched to enhance rural connectivity with a viewpoint of producing better economic and social prospects for rural inhabitants. The current study is an attempt to assess the impacts incurred by the construction of PMGSY roads on the socio-economic status of rural habitants. The study develops a novel model to assess the socio-economic impacts of rural roads constructed under PMGSY scheme, by employing Mamdani fuzzy interference system. A case study of Jhunjhunu District of Rajasthan State, India, is considered to validate the effectiveness of the model. Total of 33 sub-criteria under five main criteria have been considered as significant indicators to assess the change in socio-economic status of the habitations. The developed model foresees the change in socio-economic status of the selected habitations before and after the construction of PMGSY roads. Moreover, the percentage change occurred in the socio-economic status of the habitations provides an insight and clarity to the decision makers in employing different schemes to enhance the lives of the rural population. And also will assist to devise appropriate strategies for sustainable planning of rural road infrastructure.

Unreinforced masonry buildings (URM) constitute a major part of Kolkata building and their vulnerability in seismic ground motion is recognized. These old buildings have a unique traditional weak floor diaphragm system which makes these structures more susceptible to ground motion. This friction fit multi-component floor diaphragm system consists of overlaying thick traditional lime concrete slab on burnt clay tiles and is supported by closely spaced inverted steel Tee members resting on steel joist spanning between the walls. A nonlinear time history analysis of this diaphragm has been performed to understand its behavior and the probable collapse mechanism under seismic excitation. The result shows this system is flexible in its own plane along with an inherent lack of integrity within the diaphragm and also with the overall system. A parametric analysis indicates that this traditional diaphragm system can perform well during seismic excitation if retrofitted to a structurally integrated composite system.

This study examines the effect of addition of steel fibers on mechanical properties and permeability of pervious concrete (PC) for application in low volume roads. The PC mix was doped with hooked end (4-D) and crimped steel fibers with aspect ratios of 67 and 50 respectively in different percentages, i.e., 1%, 1.5%, and 2% by volume of concrete supplemented with a comb polymer super plasticizer. The test results confirm that PC with 1.5% hooked end (4-D) steel fibers showed the maximum increase in compressive and flexural strengths by 7.5% and 21.5% respectively over the control mix while maintaining adequate permeability. The improved flexural strength was later used for structural and hydrological design of pervious concrete pavement (PCP). The inclusion of hooked end (4-D) steel fibers in PCP reduced the slab thickness by 25 mm when compared to conventional PCP.

The coupling effects of multiple structures in modifying the overall response of both the site and buildings of the city, commonly known as site-city interaction (SCI) effects are studied. The increasing population of metro-cities and socio-economic factors are making the builders to construct structures at reclaimed lands. Construction practices at seismic vulnerable reclaimed lands and the need for seismic sustainable cities, demands a detailed study of 2D and 3D SCI effects depending on the local site condition. In this paper, the 2D and 3D SV-wave responses of a group of structures located in an elliptical basin and a circular basin with a soft sediment deposit is computed using the fourth-order accurate staggered-grid viscoelastic finite-difference algorithms. The analysis of simulated results revealed that fundamental frequency of 3D (F_03D) and 2D (F_02D) building block models on rock is 35.6% and 10.8% lesser than the 1D fundamental frequency (F_01D) of the same using certain empirical relation for the SV-wave. The SCI due to the 3-structures caused further reduction in F_03D and F_02D of building block models of the order of 3% and 9.1%. The results of 2D and 3D SCI studies reveals a reduction of spectral amplification factor (SAF) at the fundamental frequency of building of the order of 41% and 14%, respectively as compared to the same of a standalone building in the respective basins. The larger reduction in SAF in the case of 2D SCI study may be attributed to the double resonance condition.

A green building is designed to minimize environmental impact. Different factors such as temperature, humidity, wind conditions, and other various site conditions affect the efficiency of a sustainable building throughout the year. Thus, it is essential to determine the effects of various natural climatic parameters while designing a sustainable building. A climate data stream is a real-time, continuous, ordered sequence of tuples containing parameter fields such as precipitation, temperature, radiation, dew point temperature, humidity, and speed of wind recorded at different intervals of time. This data is then used to optimize the factors affecting the energy efficiency of the buildings to make construction resilient to climate vulnerabilities. In the present study, authors have proposed that a concept drift approach is effectively applied to study varying climatic parameters affect on buildings.

Now-a-days, modern structures are becoming slender and long span structures which are susceptible to vibration. The purpose of this study is to determine the minimum slab thickness of an RC slab to prevent undesirable vibration. Though American Concrete Institute (ACI) provided code for minimum slab thickness requirement from static deflection criteria, it might not be sufficient for dynamic serviceability. An investigation based on finite element modeling of an RCC floor including partition wall load is carried out to study the natural floor vibration. The variation of the floor vibration is studied for several parameters. Finally, minimum slab thickness requirement that will not cause discomfort is expressed graphically for various span length and floor panel aspect ratio. ACI serviceability limit is also compared to vibration serviceability limit. The study signifies that floor frequency is dependent on the mass of floor as well as the stiffness of the floor system. This study investigates minimum slab thickness requirement for preventing vibration discomfort and it may be helpful in residential RC building floors construction.

The three defining parameters for porous concrete are its strength, porosity, and permeability. These properties are mutually related to each other and they depend on the water-cement ratio and the aggregate proportion and sizing. A good quality porous concrete should have high strength, along with sufficient permeability and porosity. However, with an increase in permeability and porosity of the concrete, the strength is significantly reduced. The objective of this study is to determine the optimum water-cement ratio and aggregate proportion, which would yield the desired values of parameters. Mix design for the porous concrete is derived from the guidelines based on the Indian standard for the conventional concrete, by eliminating the fine aggregates and targeting a porosity of 20%. The concrete specimens were cast as cubes of 15 cm sides, with strength measured at 28 days, and the permeability measured using the falling head method. Further based on the above observations, the optimum parameters for adequate strength and permeability are determined.

The rapid building infrastructure development consumes natural/non-renewable resources, generate waste, and releases potentially hazardous emissions into atmosphere affecting the environment, social, economic, and technological aspects (sustainable indicators) throughout their whole life-cycle. This necessitates assessment of the degree of sustainability of the building in developing countries like India considering local context, topography, climatic variations, and regional differences. The comparitive study on most widely used existing assessment tools like LEED, GRIHA, IGBC, and BREEAM reveals that there are some limitations when applied to Indian context. The objective of the study is to quantify and assess the performance of new and existing buildings towards sustainability by interrelating the sustainable indicators and their criteria. This evaluation approach provides a deep insight into developing a sustainable building assessment tool (SBAT), which can be referred and recommended in assessing the sustainable building performance compared to various available tools. The developed holistic framework will facilitate the decision makers/stakeholders to improve the sustainable performance of buildings in developing countries like India.

The seismic risk level is high in India in context of potential future earthquakes and high population density. The worldwide experiences have shown that distressing effects of earthquakes can be effectively reduced by improving the earthquake preparedness level of individuals. The governing bodies and non-governmental agencies can assess and improve preparedness periodically, only if there is measurement tool to assess the preparedness levels. This study aims at the development of such a reliable and valid survey-based tool that can measure individual preparedness level in terms of earthquake readiness index (ERI). The tool was developed through a three-phase process including literature surveys, questionnaire development involving pilot studies, validity and reliability checks, and field investigation. Content validity, construct validity, internal consistency check using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, test-retest reliability check using Spearman’s correlation exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were carried out for the developing the ERI measuring survey tool. Study on Indian residents with samples collected from the city of Coimbatore from 540 respondents, confirmed the factor analysis. The final 27-item tool consisted of six categories like emergency needs, personal safety, outdoor safety, indoor safety, structural safety, and mitigation.

Disaster preparedness is an important factor which plays a major role in diminishing the causalities in case of any disasters. United Nations global assessment report published in the year 2015 on disaster risk says that India incurs an average annual economic loss of $9.8 billion due to natural disasters. This number is a wake-up call for the country to increase its commitment and invest in smart solutions that strengthen disaster resilience. This purpose calls for a valid and reliable tool for assessing the preparedness level of individuals towards any natural disaster which forms the basis of our study. This paper presents the development of one such tool that measures preparedness of individuals towards any natural disaster on the basis of four factors. It included a 14-item scale for disaster preparedness index (DPI) for individuals along with demographics for interpretative studies. The 14-item scale included necessary measures that were considered necessary for an individual to safeguard life and property not only during a major natural disaster but also to secure the life of the individual after the disasters. Governmental agencies can utilize this tool which produces DPI for individuals to evaluate and then analyze the preparedness levels of any group of individuals towards natural disasters. In summary, the data presented here support the usefulness of the disaster preparedness index, as a measure of preparedness towards natural disasters. It includes items based on psychological parameters of the individuals towards natural disasters, a component that is not included in other measures of disaster preparation. It has a stable, unifactorial structure that is suitable for use as a dependent variable, and has high reliability and good validity. Studies of disaster preparedness on Chennai residents showed that the 14 item scale measuring the disaster preparedness of individuals is a valid, reliable, and consistent in unifactorial scale.

The RC column strength is evaluated as per assumptions in IS456:2000. The ductility is ensured through detailing as per IS13920:2016. The ductility is essentially imparted through confining steel. The stress strain curve for the confined concrete remains above the stress strain curve as accepted in IS456:2000 up to the strain value of 0.0035; usually accepted for static loading condition. The standard cylindrical test specimens with confining steel were tested for the confirmation of enhanced strength within static loading condition. The strength of RC column under static loading condition in terms of P_u-M_u interaction curve is evaluated for (i) IS456:2000 model and (ii) Mander et al. stress strain model for confined concrete. A generalized spreadsheet was prepared for the strength evaluation of RC column. The strength enhancement in terms of P_u-M_u curve remained within 5% to 20% of that obtained as per IS456:2000 model for different size of square columns.

The present investigation is dealing with the influence of steel making industry waste as a cement replacement, which will directly reduce the CO₂ emission in environment due to use in concrete considering the long term durability and sustainability of structure. The study has been carried out by comparing and implementing the waste material for the research by rigorous literature survey. The oxide compositions (viz., Al₂O₃, SiO₂, CaO, Fe₂O₃) of the waste material is investigated and compared with the cement to use as a cement replacement. The behavior of concrete containing waste was checked out at different percentage replacement (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, and 90%). For the accurate results, chemical parameter were investigated for the waste material and all fresh as well harden properties were find out to check feasibility of waste as a cement replacement in concrete. To understand the performance of concrete, all these parameters were checked after salt exposure, hydrochloric acid exposure, and magnesium-sulphate exposure till 28 days, 56 days, 90 days, 120 days, 150 days, and 180 days. These specimens were kept under 40°, 60°, 80°, and 100° degree temperature to observe the performance of concrete, if this will be used in hot climate country. The concrete produced from waste replacement was compared with the conventional concrete, and all fresh properties, compressive strength, flexural strength, split tensile strength, and durability were investigated by taking different trials adjusting different w/c ratio and admixture dosages. The investigation was completed for 6 months for different parameter as per the guidelines given in specifications to maintain the accuracy in methodology and improved results were found for particular mix design with optimum cement replacement. This investigation gives the option of cement which will directly benefit to reduce CO₂ emission as well in cost reduction of concrete which gives the sustainable and economic solution for the structure.

Urban cities are embracing new innovations in built-up spaces and thereby necessitating renovations or constructions for new buildings either by demolition of obsolete buildings or at new places to expand the city itself. In this regard natural stones are converted to aggregates and hence generate stone dust as a waste. Construction and demolition wastes include brickbats which are used as in-fills. Many attempts have been made to re-use these wastes but still the problem persists and large percentages of these wastes reach landfills. Controlled low strength materials (CLSM) are an obvious choice for use of these wastes in large quantities, required for sustainable city objectives. CLSM is a cementitious and self-flowing backfill material. Design of CLSM mixes involves iteration process mainly to satisfy the flow and strength requirements. Phenomenological models are an effective tool in the design of CLSM mixtures with a single trial. In this paper Class F fly ash was used as secondary cementitious material along with powdered brickbats, stone dust as fine aggregates in complete replacement to natural sand; to produce sustainable CLSM mixtures with varying Class F fly ash to cement ratios and water contents. Spread flow and marsh cone flow tests were conducted on fresh CLSM mixtures and compressive strength tests were carried out on hardened cylindrical specimens at 3, 7, 28, and 56 day age. Spread flow values were converted to relative flow area values. Phenomenological models (flow and strength) were generated using wide range of experimental data to predict flow and strength values. The water demand of quarry dust mixes was more compared to brickbats mixes and this resulted in lesser flow values and hence non-flow results. Incorporation of these non-flow values in the generation of flow prediction models resulted in poor prediction of flow results; however strength prediction was not influenced. Discarded brick bats and quarry dust are hence recommended for use as fine aggregates along with Class F fly ash as secondary cementitious material in CLSM to overcome urbanization challenge for sustainable development.

The explosion in population has led to urbanization and industrialization, necessitating the need for massive and typical structures. Hence the construction technologists are continuously striving to make use of alternative materials in manufacturing of concrete. This study presents the use of successive recycled concrete aggregate (SRCA) which was obtained from the old concrete made with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). The mechanical and permeability properties were determined by replacement of natural coarse aggregates (NCA) with SRCA at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% with and without use of 10% silica fume (SF). Tests such as compressive strength, water penetration, and capillary suction were conducted. Improved results were obtained up to 25% replacement of NCA with SRCA in the presence of 10% SF. The loss in permeability can be compensated up to some extent with the addition of 10% SF clubbed with replacement of NCA with SRCA.

In the design of high rise buildings, lateral loads like wind and earthquake forces play a significant role in the stability of the structure and must be accounted for. Many structures that are being constructed at present tend to be wind-sensitive because of their shapes, slenderness, flexibility, size, and lightness. In the present study, effects of square (for reference) and plus shape on response of tall buildings under wind loads is studied as data for plus shape is not available in IS Codes for wind analysis. The study is divided into two categories: i. experimental study: rigid models of tall buildings with square and plus shape is tested in boundary layer wind tunnel to find mean and fluctuating pressures at various points in different surfaces. Square and plus shaped models are tested in open circuit wind tunnel in which small blocks are used as the obstruction to meet the wind tunnel simulation requirement and for the development of turbulent flow for generating the atmospheric surface layer in the 2 m×2 m cross section at wind tunnel. The effects of shape of the building model on the wind pressure distribution are also discussed. ii. Response study: response of the buildings having square and plus shape under wind pressures obtained experimentally in part one, is carried out using Bentley Staad Pro software. Prototype buildings are assumed to be made of RCC beams and columns with grid size 5 m×5 m and storey height 4.5 m (ground floor) and 3.3 m (remaining 35 floors). Mean response including moment about both axes, shear force, twisting moment, and displacement are obtained under various wind incidence angles to study the effects of square and plus shape under wind loads.

In India, appliance of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is bound to non-structural concrete, pavements, and backfilling. Research paper highlights the backdrop of construction and demolition waste concrete wherein coarse recycled aggregates (CRA) accept been activated thoroughly. CRA is acclimated as 50%, 70%, and 90% backup of accustomed normal coarse aggregates (NCA). Various mixes were able for accustomed out beginning plan with altered water-cement (W/C) ratios. All mixes were advised for characteristic strength of M20 mix grade. Three altered types namely beginning fresh concrete material (FCM), waste concrete material (WCM), and waste concrete material with admixture (WCA) are advised for assay work. Masterpolyhhed-8311 mid ambit baptize abbreviation admixture is acclimated to advance achievement of WCM. Microstructural abstraction is agitated out by scanning electron microscope (SEM) of crumb samples extracted from concrete cubes. Qualitative and quantitative assay is agitated out by x-ray diffraction and allotment agreement of ratios of oxides of calcium and silica (C/S) is formed out. Compressive strength, and C-S-H gel formation of FCM, WCM, and waste concrete material with admixture (WCA) is studied through scanning electron microscope (SEM). It is empiric that there is advance in compressive strength and achievement of waste concrete material with admixture (WCA). Present work justifies that construction and demolition waste material (recycled coarse aggregates) can be efficiently utilized to achieve comparable compressive strength and durability relative to concrete using natural coarse aggregates (NCA).

Identification of alternative, sustainable materials, and technologies in traditional masonry work could decrease economic, environmental, and social impacts, such as energy usage and cost during the life-cycle of the building. In the present study, sustainable brick was developed using locally available industrial by-product (co-fired blended ash-CBA). Physico-mechanical, durability, and thermal conductivity tests were conducted on CBA bricks that fulfilled the requirements of Indian standard. Properties of the developed product were compared with the commercially available fly ash (FA) bricks. CBA bricks were found to be 26% lighter in weight with respect to FA bricks, which further caused the reduction in the dead load. In comparison with the FA bricks, embodied energy and thermal conductivity of the developed bricks was reduced by 23% and 49.5% respectively. The decreased thermal conductivity was helpful in reducing the operational energy demand of a building. The concept was briefed with a case study of a building over Nagpur (Maharashtra, India) that comes under the composite climatic zone as per SP 7: 2005. Building plan approved by the Indian standards and local government practice for single storey structure was modelled and analyzed in the simulation software (building information modelling tool) for the considered geographic location. With respect to FA bricks, CBA bricks reduced the peak-cooling load of a building by 8.3%. Developed sustainable bricks were helpful in reducing the energy demand of the building in a cost effective manner. The study suggested that the application of novel sustainable building material with a computational approach strengthens the decision process.

Sustainable infrastructure plays vital role in overall growth of any country. It includes economical and environmental friendly methods of construction. The intent of the present study is to analyze some geotechnical properties including durability of soil reinforced with locally available fibers. The types of fibers utilized for the present investigation at 1.25% of soil dry weight, are agricultural waste fibers (straw, coir), and industrial waste fibers (shredded tire rubber). Some characterization tests including SPT, UCS, and a wet-dry cycle test, which is simply wet-dry durability test, as adopted from literature were conducted. Results obtained with reinforced samples were much better. It is concluded that after using these fibers peak compressive strength was increased as well as sudden expansive behavior of soil sample was much reduced.

Generation of construction and demolition wastes (CDW) and their disposal is a critical issue at present. The primary component of CDW is building derived materials (BDM), which are predominantly composed of concrete and brick. The application of recycled aggregate is quite prevalent in engineering applications. However, the present study aims to reuse virgin BDM to avoid the costs associated with recycling processes. This study investigates the suitability of using virgin BDM for ground improvement, especially in soils containing aggressive chemicals. Five different kinds of BDM are characterized from their physical, chemical, and engineering aspects, before and after exposure to different chemicals. These exposures are found to inflict significant deterioration on the properties of the BDM. Hence, proper measures have to be adopted while using BDM as a foreign additive in sand in the vicinity of a chemical plant, waste processing plant, or in localities prone to acid rain.

Buildings contribute to natural resources depletion and greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for carbon footprint. By transforming the built environment to be more climate-friendly, the building sector can play a major role in reducing the threat of climate change. In the present paper, the carbon equivalence for concrete and steel was computed for different types of emissions using software approach. The emission parameters, which have deteriorating effect on the environment, were considered in this study. For this purpose, a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool, Simapro 8 was used. The class room complex at the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India, with lifespan of 100 years was considered for the analysis. The total built up area of this building is 15225.9 sq.m. The data were collected from the site and the impact assessment was done for the same by using Simapro 8 Tool. The carbon equivalent values of various emissions were compared with the average emissions in India. The results showed that the CO₂ emission of concrete and steel was 0.938 g and 31 g per kilogram respectively. The CH₄ emission was found to be 0.0851 μg and 6.91 μg per kilogram of concrete and steel respectively. The N₂O emission was found to be 0.296 g and 5.22 g per kilogram of concrete and steel respectively. Similarly, 1.81μg and 40.7μg SOx emission per kilogram of concrete and steel was obtained respectively. The carbon equivalent of each emission was calculated and expressed as million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MMTCDE). It was found that the computed values of the carbon dioxide equivalents in the present study were well below the emission factors used by the Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment. The computations were verified using the India: Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2007 report by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. From the above, it can be concluded that the computed values of carbon dioxide emissions can be considered to be legitimate and used for assessing the environmental impact of the considered case study. This study has explored the possibility of utilizing a LCA tool called Simapro 8, to compute the carbon dioxide equivalent values of the emissions from construction materials in Indian context and found suitable for specific use.

Ranking infrastructures by level of service can provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of utilities while providing a platform for sharing of knowledge and best practices. Poor data collection practices and the lack of clarity on targets to achieve can be considered as major challenges in ranking urban infrastructure. In this study, two unweighted and continuous ranking systems—modified z-score method (MZM) and scaled geometric method (SGM) have been proposed. Both methods have appropriately incorporated benchmark information to provide realistic targets for the utilities to achieve. Data insufficiency has also been handled in a way to promote robust data collection procedures. The final scores may be interpreted as measures of proximity between the city and an ideal city. Also, different ranking systems were applied to service level data for water supply and distribution to demonstrate the relative functioning of different ranking systems.

The public spaces play a very important role in providing the quality of life to its residents. Quality of life will be determined by the social and economic equity as well the belongingness to the city. The different types of public spaces may fulfill different types of need such as parks for health and recreation, commercial spaces for shopping activities as well social interaction, religious spaces for peace and harmony, exhibition spaces for different types of knowledge, etc. Traditional Indian public spaces were able to cater the need of residents by providing different types of spaces such as temple courtyard; parks, male ground, bazaars, and these spaces were designed for climate, socio-cultural, as well economic factors. The public spaces in India cities were designed for bullock cart, cycle, pedestrian, etc., and were the cost-effective solution. After liberalization of the economy in 1990, the Indian cities have gone through a tremendous transformation at the level of the economy, socio-cultural aspect. India has adopted the western living style based on globalization and the public spaces of cities have been designed as indoor and vehicular centric. These spaces become a gated community for rich people and become inaccessible for poor or middle-class people of a city. These spaces have to lead to loss of social interaction and loss of identity to its resident. There is need to explore the middle path by creating fusion of traditional and modern principles of design for public spaces so that public spaces are able to fulfill the modern needs of people such as vehicular access, technological advancement, and living style, and traditional needs such as access to all, creating identity through traditional principles of design. This paper will explore various definitions of public spaces, the difference between Indian public spaces and western public spaces, case studies of traditional public spaces, issues, and strategies for the design of public spaces, and case example of public spaces by adopting the fusion of modern and traditional principles.

In this paper, synthetic ground motions are simulated employing a physics-based simulation methodology (PyLith), for a hypothetical earthquake of Mw 7.1 along one of the most active fault near Delhi region, Mahendragarh-Dehradun Fault (MDF). Further, using the synthetics, incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is conducted on a typical six story concrete moment resisting frame building and IDA curves are constructed with residual drift ratio (%) versus spectral acceleration at fundamental period [Sa (T1, 5%)]. Furthermore, analytical fragility curves are derived for each damage state based on FEMA P-58, for determining the seismic performance of concrete frames in the event of an earthquake in the study region. The results reveal that at Sa (T1, 5%) of 1.0 g, there is an 86% and 68% probability of non-structural damage and slight structural damage respectively. Also, for Sa (T1, 5%) value of 1.5 g, there is more than 60% probability of exceedance of all damage states.

Rapid urbanisation of Indian cities has placed heavy demands on the existing transportation facilities. Pollutants released from motor vehicles and the noise associated with traffic congestions cause detrimental effects on environment. Urban vegetation can be effectively used to reduce the impact caused by vehicular pollution. Ability of plant species to resist air pollution has been evaluated in the present study using air pollution tolerance index method. Capability of different hedge species to reduce the effect of noise pollution is evaluated based on leaf morphological characteristics. The study was carried out in Thiruvananthapuram City during the summer of 2017. Polyalthia longifolia, Ixora coccinea, and Anacardium occidentale are identified as tolerant to air pollution related stresses. Polyalthia longifolia was found to be effective in reducing noise pollution and is identified as the most suitable species for the development of green belt in Thiruvananthapuram City.

The urban sewage is being contaminated with heavy metals due to its indiscriminate disposal. The heavy metals may cause irreversible changes in morphology of sewage treatment plant biomass and thereby its treatment performance. This paper investigates the impact of Cu(II) ion on performance and biomass morphology of laboratory scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs). Five 1 L SBRs were operated using initial MLSS of 1500 mg/L with fill, aerate, settle, and decant times of 15, 680, 10, and 15 min, respectively in a cycle of 12 h. These SBRs were fed with 0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 mg/L of Cu(II) along with 0.50 g/L of lactogen (giving an initial COD of 523.3±19.7 mg/L) during stressed phase operation while Cu(II) feeding discontinued during recovery phase operation. The effluent COD at steady state were, respectively 48.8±13.0, 173.6±62.4, 243.6±48.2, 290.0±39.7, and 315.2±21.4 mg/L; and estimated biomass activities were, respectively 7.000, 2.284, 1.893, 1.533, and 1.434 mg COD removed/mg VSS d for SBRs fed with 0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 mg/L of Cu(II). It indicated deterioration of reactor performance with increase in Cu(II) levels. During recovery phase, SBRs indicated improvement in COD removal. The morphological study indicated visible changes in physical characteristics of biomass size and colour, decrease in filament index values, and accumulation of Cu(II) on biomass surface leading to severe damage. Overall, the reactor biomass exposed to higher Cu(II) levels leads to failure of treatment and making urban infrastructure susceptible to instability.

The present study assesses the impact of land use change on climate by estimating the reduction in the soil carbon sequestration capacity and emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂), major components of greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere by converting protected forest to unprotected forest of Delhi Ridge. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) of soil samples of upper layer (0-30 cm) of both protected and unprotected forest of Delhi Ridge were analysed in three seasons (summer, winter, and monsoon) of a year (2015). It was found that SOC and SIC in the protected forest were 25.42 and 3 percent respectively, higher than the unprotected forest, and there would be potential of release of 91.24 tons excess CO₂ into the atmosphere if we convert one hectare of protected forest to unprotected forest.

Sustainable supplementary cementitious material is the prime need in the construction industry. Geopolymer has strong potential for replacing the conventional Portland cement used in mortar and concrete in the industry. This study deals with experimental investigations performed on geopolymer mixes prepared from both ultra-fine ground granulated blast furnace slag and flyash in a certain proportion. Geopolymer mixes were prepared with alkali activator composed of sodium hydroxide solution and varying amount of superplasticizer. The mixes were tested to study fresh and hardened state properties such as setting time, workability, and compressive strength. Influence of concentration of alkali activator on effectiveness of superplasticizer in modifying the properties of geopolymer mixes was also investigated. Results indicated that addition of superplasticizer to ultra-fine slag-flyash based geopolymer is advantageous in terms of setting time, workability, and strength performance but up to certain dosage level. Higher concentration of alkali activator render ineffectiveness in superplasticizer in improving the fresh and hardened state properties of geopolymer mixes.

Infrastructure projects are often prone to time and cost overruns. The reason for this can be attributed to many factors such as erroneous feasibility study, unclear scope of works, uncoordinated execution, inequitable risk allocation due to unbalanced contract terms, etc. While there are several means of achieving the project objectives, the adoption of a particular method is constrained by the cost factor. Therefore, we overlook the additional factors that need to be considered while choosing a delivery method in a given life cycle stage. These factors include consideration of owner priorities over the project life cycle in the design stage itself, value for money analysis, potential for changes, etc. However, in the Indian infrastructure context, these concepts are in a very nascent stage. Therefore, the authors of this paper give a holistic overview of the comprehensive approaches throughout the project life cycle and strongly recommend to bring it in practice.

Large quantities of construction and demolition (C&D) waste generated in cities and the disposal is becoming major problem. In line with these thoughts, this study focuses on the utilization of construction waste to improve the performance of stone matrix asphalt (SMA) in terms of mechanical, volumetric, and moisture susceptibility and propose the suitable percentage of C&D waste from the mixes. From this investigation, it is observed that the stability, flow, bulk density, voids filled in bitumen, and Marshall quotient values are decreasing from conventional mix to modified mix. But, air voids and voids filled in mineral aggregate values are increasing from conventional mix to modified mix. The indirect tensile strength and tensile strength ratio values are decreasing from conventional mix to modified mix. From the results it is observed that 10% C&D waste is suitable to prepare SMA surface layer.

The present study aims to carry out the streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) of a solid waste management facility located in Turbhe, Navi Mumbai. The analysis was performed in two stages. First stage involved the enumeration of net environmental impacts of existing facility for the duration of 10 years i.e. from the year 2008 (start of the landfill facility) to 2017 (present date). Based on the first stage results, the system augmentation was proposed by suggesting the modifications in the existing infrastructure. The second stage then dealt with the forecasting of environmental impacts for the existing and proposed augmented infrastructure for the duration of 24 years i.e. from the present year 2017 to 2041, design life of landfill site. Refuse derived fuel facility of the existing system is replaced with gasification unit in augmented one. The environmental burdens associated with the facility were analysed for two impact categories of acidification and global warming. The results showed that the proposed augmented infrastructure is more efficient for the impact category of acidification, while less efficient for the impact category of global warming.

Environmental concerns are a big threat to most of the countries in the world, especially with the growing size of infrastructure. There is a need for attention towards structures with respect to their impact on the environment. The present study is an attempt to assess the ecological imbalance, environmental impacts, and reduction in overall life time of the buildings. Largely, the ecological imbalance is due to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere which triggers global warming. The present study also uses life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to address the major environment concerns in the construction of residential buildings. SimaPro 8.4 is used to assess and verify the overall performance of the project in terms of its maintenance and quality. Actual building case study constructed using pure cement was chosen to apply the concepts of LCA and compare the results with the alternative materials.

To cater to the rising traffic in urban areas, engineers need to adopt design methodologies that ensure the resilience and sustainability of pavements for a longer duration than conventional life and demand construction of perpetual pavements. The rapid growing urbanization has led to a growth in the requirement of bricks, leading to massive accumulation of its by-products. Brick kiln dust is the mixture of coal ash, wood ash, and brickbats produced by fuel combustion in the brick kilns. Brick kiln dust finds its potential application in the design of perpetual pavements over weak subgrades. A comparison was drawn between perpetual pavements and conventional flexible pavements on economic and sustainability grounds, to serve for 50 years. The pavements were designed by mechanistic-empirical design philosophy using the design software IITPAVE. The results were further validated using the design software KENPAVE. This study aims to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the life-cycle of perpetual and conventional pavements. Results show that the brick kiln dust treated perpetual pavements have significantly lower life-cycle costs and GHG emissions than the non-treated perpetual pavements. The perpetual pavements prove to be an economical and a sustainable choice for over the conventional pavements.

Structural damage during a seismic event, of traditionally designed buildings is inevitable. Although seismic design based on capacity design philosophy, prevents brittle collapse of a structure; it does not ensure an operational state of the structure after an earthquake event. This highlights a mismatch between societal expectations and actual seismic performance of a structure, designed with standard design procedures available currently. To minimise seismic demand on primary structure and to achieve stringent seismic performance objectives, using supplemental energy dissipation (SED) systems in primary structure is now becoming commonplace. The study presented here evaluates structural performance of RC frames with SED devices. A displacement based seismic design method is used for specifying the properties of SED devices. The SED devices designed here are based on viscous and metal hysteretic mechanisms. Four earthquake time history sets are used to represent seismic demand on the modelled RC frame. Displacements at nodes, force actions in structural members, and residual displacements obtained from nonlinear dynamic analyses are used as seismic response parameters. Additionally seismic energy dissipation of RC frames by virtue of plastic rotations in structural members is evaluated and presented as a parameter representing structural damage. A considerable reduction in seismic response is noted with use of both SED devices. It is inferred from the present study that, a low-damage, earthquake resilient performance can be obtained for RC frames using SED systems.

Understanding the fundamentals and behaviors of concrete is necessary to utilize it in different engineering applications. This study covers the different types of concrete required to design and control concrete mixtures for a wide variety of structures. An attempt is made to evaluate the compressive stress-strain curves for various types of concrete such as normal concrete (NC), high-performance concrete (HPC), high-performance fiber reinforced concrete (HPFRC), and polymer concrete (PC) under triaxial compression test. Experimental results were carried out from different investigations to evaluate various parameters. The stress-strain curve offers valuable information on concrete characteristics. Unlike many other graphs, stress-strain curves are also easy to obtain. Here, valuable mechanical properties such as modulus of elasticity, resilience, toughness, and energy absorption of different types of concretes were determined. These parameters can be derived from stress-strain curves in various confining pressures. Furthermore, the mathematical function (strength increased factor) was provided to predict the compressive strength under various confining pressures for each type of concrete. The results showed that the HPFRC and PC had significant mechanical properties than other types of concrete since HPFRC and PC had the most compressive strength and compressive strain, respectively. Moreover, the results of strength increased factor (SIF) revealed that the polynomial function is helpful in estimating the expected increase in the strength under various confining pressures.

For sustainable development in emerging economies, it is essential to limit the use of cement in construction, the production of which causes enormous carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by healing the cracks in structures through which harmful substances can penetrate and affect both concrete and reinforcement. One of the most effective autonomous crack healing techniques is possible by using specific bacteria in concrete that have the capability of calcite precipitation in the concrete matrix. In this paper, a state-of-the-art review is presented on microbial concrete as a sustainable construction material. Here, the criteria for bacterial selection, their application methodologies, and the effect of the different bacteria on the mechanical properties of concrete in terms of strength, permeability, and durability are specifically covered. The areas of research on microbial concrete that need to be explored in order to promote its applicability for large-scale infrastructure development have been identified.

The study presents the effect of interference on wind pressure distribution on tall buildings having rectangular plan shape due to the presence of a closely located interfering building having a similar plan shape but with a variation in height. The effect of interference is studied by placing the interfering building in front of the principal building perpendicular to it, in such a manner that it forms a L-shape pattern in plan. The height of the interfering building is varied keeping the location same. Results of the pressure measurements are reported in this paper for different heights of the interfering building, in the form of contour plots for both mean as well as fluctuating component on different faces of the principal building. Large amount of torsion is developed due to the L-shape pattern arrangement of the buildings. It is evident from the pressure contours that the wind pressure distribution on different faces of the principal building gets highly altered due to the presence of an interfering building. Negative pressure (suction) is observed on the windward face in the zone where interfering building is present.

This study explores the usage of sustainable materials in the form of natural fibers for reinforcing and improving the subgrade strength of pavements. In the past, natural fibers possessing suitable bio-chemical properties have been applied for subgrade reinforcement. In the current study, the use of a waste weed, water hyacinth (WH) along with agricultural fibers (jute and coir) have been tested. It is established that the natural fibers have a limited in field-life due to its degradation with time. In order to improve the strength as well as increasing the working life of such natural fibers, attempt was made in the study to chemically coat the natural fiber surface with nanoparticles of ferric hydroxide and aluminum hydroxide. The chemical coating showcased the alteration of the fiber surface and was initially analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) followed by energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) tests. This study focuses on the short term behavior of nanoparticle coated natural fiber impregnated soil and its use as a sustainable pavement subgrade. Tensile strength as well as moisture absorption test was done for all untreated and treated natural fibers. The impregnation of nanoparticles on the fiber surface resulted in increase of surface roughness of the fiber and further increases the tensile strength of the material. Unconfined compressive strength test was performed to evaluate the improvement in mechanical characteristics of randomly distributed fiber reinforced soil. The increase in compressive strength at varying moisture conditions and its mechanism has been discussed for soil reinforced with treated, untreated fibers; as well as bare soil. The results demonstrate the efficacy of using chemically altered natural fiber in increasing subgrade strength of embankment material as a sustainable infrastructure tool.

Steel slag (basic oxygen furnace slag) is a by-product left over from the conversion of iron to steel in steel industries. Currently in India, steel slag is being used as replacement of loose aggregate for road construction. Due to its ever increasing production and hazardous effects due to dumping of slag there is a need to study its effect on mortar and concrete with higher replacement ratios. The chemical composition of steel slag showed potential for use as cementitious component. This paper explores the use of partially replacing cement with locally available steel slag for making of cement mortar. The effects of steel slag powder on the normal consistency water requirement, setting times, compressive strength were studied. The results showed that the preferred content of steel slag powder as replacement of OPC was 20%. Additionally, this research will contribute to our understanding of how to sustainably manage industrial wastes with economical and environmental benefits.

Disaster vulnerability among many is reliant on socio-economic factors such as livelihood and traditions. In disaster management, the 4 Rs of the process are reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 identifies the community to be the first effective responder to crisis. While the Hyogo framework directed the State to include the community as one of the stakeholders of disaster management, the capacity of communities remains woefully short for this responsibility. The present study identifies hazard risk perception mapping as the first step to community readiness. Through primary surveys reliant upon community readiness toolkits of successful case studies, an urban core locality in Kolkata has been studied for the same. This study aims to identify the perceptual drawbacks the local communities in urban core localities face regarding hazard risks and disaster in order to aid capacity building of the local community and mitigate disasters effectively.

Control of structural vibration because of seismic forces has been widely studied as of late. However, concentrates on vibration control of structures against underground impacts are limited. The focus of this research is on passive structural control devices. Passive systems incorporate a scope of materials and devices for upgrading structural damping, stiffness, and strength. Dampers have become more popular recently for vibration control of structures, because of their safe, effective, and economical design. The underground blast-induced ground motion is modelled by an exponentially decaying function in this study. The impact of the different parameters on execution is analysed in the time domain by considering a single degree of freedom model and a sensible five-story working as multi-degree freedom system. The devices considered and compared by their effectiveness in reducing responses in the current study are friction damper, viscoelastic damper, and viscous damper.

World population is growing at a rapid pace which has caused a tremendous housing shortage. This in turn leads to over exploitation of natural resources such as iron ore, lime stones, alumina, etc. This has resulted in exponential increase in the prices of conventional building materials. Also the production of these materials causes the degradation of environment due to the production of greenhouse gases. To resolve this menace, recent researches have been focused on developing sustainable infrastructure. Numerous innovative techniques have been showcased by different researchers recently, highlighting the potential of bamboo based construction for sustainable infrastructure. However, for onsite construction these innovative techniques have still not been widely used to develop affordable housing. This study focuses on the available techniques and the hindrances affecting the mass usages of such techniques to develop affordable housing. An overview on the benefits and shortcomings of different components such as bamboo reinforced beams, bamboo reinforced columns, bamboo arches, bamboo reinforced walls are also analyzed here for affordable housing. It was observed that such bamboo based structures have great future prospects for developing affordable housing as they are cheap and have considerable strength. However, issues such as bond stress, chemical treatment, size, shape, species, age, moisture content, etc. which affect the bamboo performance have still not been standardized through guidelines. Therefore, there is an immediate need to standardize structural bamboo through effective guidelines for its wide application.

Concrete is one of the most widely used materials in the construction industry. Depletion of natural resources has resulted in the lookout for alternate materials. Waste E-plastics on the other hand, are materials which cannot be recycled. Therefore, a study on characteristics of concrete having E-plastics as a replacement to fine aggregate is conducted and applications are suggested. In this research work, a survey was conducted to quantify the amount of waste E-plastic generated per day. M30 grade of concrete was designed as per the IS method and the mix proportion obtained was 1:1.6:2.5. Fine aggregate in concrete was replaced with E-plastics in various percentages ranging from 5% to 30% by weight of cement. Tests were conducted on fresh and hardened concrete to study the characteristics and arrive at the maximum replacement percentage of fine aggregate with E-plastic. The compressive, split tensile and flexural strengths of the concrete decreased as the percentage replacement of E-plastic increased. The maximum percentage of E-plastic replacement at which the M30 grade concrete achieved the optimum strength was found to be 15%. This optimum replacement was used to design and test paver blocks and it was observed that paver blocks achieved the desired strengths suitable for application in building premises, monument premises, landscapes, public gardens/parks, domestic drives, paths and patios, embankment slopes, sand stabilization area, etc.

The agricultural industries nowadays utilize the generated industrial biomass as a biofuel for the energy production. The biomass waste is a renewable and sustainable source of energy. The industrial thermal process converts the biomass into the heat energy, which leaves the significant amount of its ash as a by-product of no further use. The combination of cementitious materials may be more beneficial to the concrete than only Portland cement. In the present study, sugarcane biomass ash (SCBA) and rice husk ash (RHA) were physically, chemically, and mineralogically characterized to evaluate their pozzolanic behavior. In addition to this, their thermal analysis, x-ray diffractometry, morphological analysis, granulometric distribution, pozzolanic index, and scanning electron microscopy have been carried out. In the first phase, binary blends of SCBA and cement were formed to obtain higher strength performance and the durability. In the second phase, RHA was added as a third binder to the mixture containing Portland cement and SCBA. The results concluded that the ternary blended mixtures gave more satisfactory results of strength and durability provided that the optimum level of replacement was chosen. The use of biomass waste in cementitious blends gives an effective solution to the problems linked with the waste management and its environmental concerns.

Civil infrastructure systems emphasize on co-existence of the different structures together as a system that is highly dynamic and with behavior that varies on wide temporal and spatial scales. Furthermore, urban environments can be viewed as a “system of systems” with complex interactions and interdependencies existing among its individual systems. The focus has been comparatively more on the resilient design of the individual infrastructure components rather than how infrastructure components interrelate and interact to make up a dynamic system. To model complex infrastructures systems with time-varying behaviors, system theory is a powerful tool that allows analytical and computational methods to fully describe the complex dynamics of independent and interdependent infrastructure systems. Cyber-physical systems are a new class of sensor-rich engineered systems that entail not only sensors but computing and actuation cohesively integrated for monitoring and controlling of the applications. The vast historical as well as real-time data obtained from such systems and its semantics result in a knowledge repository. Predictive analytics is one of the best practices of extracting information from such a repository in order to determine patterns and predict future outcomes and system behavior. Our earlier work proposed a decision support framework comprising a geologic prediction model, and a construction strategy decision model for tunnel design. We further extend and generalize the framework by including a predictive analytics model for effective engineering of infrastructure component(s) within a civil infrastructure system. The predictive analytics framework is sustainable due to its self-adaptive properties.

In view of the gigantic and fast developing area of the building sector, the research on life cycle assessment (LCA) has been diversified into innumerable areas, range from various stages of material to the building components and complete building. This review paper aims to study the various LCA tools, applicable to the buildings sector according to their functionality. In this, every phase of LCA is thoroughly reviewed, and related conflicts are extracted. Further, different service life prediction models are also reviewed to evaluate the life of the selected structure based on durability concepts of concrete.

Resilience based design (RBD) gives an advantage in designing for both direct and indirect losses. It was observed that most significant losses to the economy is due to indirect losses incurred due to long downtime—inability of common mass to resume to their jobs and return home. With the use of RBD methods it is possible to control the downtime and its losses. In Indian scenario one of the major problem associated with carrying out RBD is lack of ground motion database and guidelines for selection and scaling ground motions. It is required to have hazard consistent ground motions to perform non-linear time history analysis (NLTHA) and using this analysis results, downtime assessment such as repair cost, repair time along with direct loss could be assessed. In this paper, current practices and their limitation in resilience based earthquake design are discussed along with the selection of proper ground motion and scaling methods. This paper also suggests various alternative methods such as use of SPO2IDA in cases where hazard consistent ground motion cannot be produced easily.

The main aim of present review is to know the potential of industrial and agricultural by-products such as fly ash (FA) and rice husk ash (RHA) secondary cementitious material. The review will also focus on effects of partial replacement of cement on the important properties of concrete such as strength, workability, and the durability. The huge quantity of FA generation from thermal power plant and its safe disposal is the major problem in India. The literature shows improvement in workability and durability of concrete by utilization of FA with less early age strength. The utilization of RHA in the concrete will enhance strength and durability of concrete, however, reduce workability. The combined use of FA, RHA, and cement as ternary blended concrete may be advantageous. The FA shall improve workability and RHA improve the early age strength of concrete. The result of such ternary blend concrete will be helpful for practical use for sustainability.

The gap graded asphalt mixtures have higher air voids when compared to dense graded asphalt mixtures and are expected to fail due to moisture induced damage. In the present study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the rutting potential and moisture sensitivity of gap graded asphalt mixture with and without warm mix additive. The moisture damage and the rutting values of the asphalt mixtures with and without warm mix were comparable. The gap graded asphalt mixtures with and without warm mix additive showed better resistance to fatigue. Further, the 3D tomography study revealed that, the higher percentage of air voids in the gap graded asphalt mixtures were occupied by the crumb rubber coated with bitumen resulting in rut and moisture resistant mixtures. The use of warm mix additive in rubber modified gap graded mixture resulted in an economical and sustainable asphalt mixture for the wearing course.

The half warm mix asphalt (HWMA) are considered as low energy mixtures and can be used for all climatic and traffic conditions. The half-warm bituminous specimens were prepared at the temperatures less than or equal to 100°C using 12% of polymer modified bitumen emulsion by weight of aggregates. Indirect tensile strength ratio (ITSR) was 81.4 and 53.1% respectively for HWMA and cold mix asphalt (CMA) without antistripping agent. Hence, an attempt was made to improve the ITSR values by adding antistripping agent and the values were marginally increased to 84.0 and 59.4% respectively for HWMA and CMA. However, 2% lime was added as filler in the HWMA mixture. The rutting values of HWMA mixture was 14 mm at 10,000 cycles under submerged condition, when tested in accordance with AASHTO T324, despite the fact that the used aggregates had the water absorption of 2.80%. From the present study, it can be concluded that the HWMA mixtures could be a good alternative solution for the maintenance of city roads as it is expected to perform satisfactorily while producing lesser carbon emissions, thus helping the environment.

The city of Ludhiana (Manchester of India) is in a phase of rapid development as it has been proposed as one of the smart cities of Northern India. Seismic activities in this part of the country are increasing. In the present study, deterministic seismic hazard analysis (DSHA) of proposed smart city, Ludhiana, has been carried out. Seven tectonic features have been identified as potential seismogenic sources. Each seismogenic source has been assigned a maximum magnitude considering the regional rupture character. For this purpose, seismic data for a period of 525 years has been collected from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Delhi, and earthquake catalogue has been compiled for the study region. Ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) developed for Indo-Gangetic region by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India has been used to assess the hazard. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) values are estimated by considering a grid of 0.025°×0.025° covering the Ludhiana region. Deterministic response spectra has also been developed for 5 major sites of Ludhiana region. Maximum PGA value (PGA_max) of 0.392 g for the study region has been estimated from the study and is found to be on higher side as compared to the IS code of practice. The study is very significant keeping in view resilient structures for upcoming smart cities of India.

Learning from the undesirable past catastrophes, there are growing worldwide recognition and interests among the engineering professionals and decision makers to build and maintain resilient and sustainable civil infrastructure systems. The current study presents a quantitative framework for estimating seismic resilience of aging bridges in India. A typical three-span bridge is analysed for this purpose. Three dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model of the bridge is developed to simulate bridge characteristics at its pristine, 30-year, and 60-year deteriorated conditions. Nonlinear time history analyses are performed to express seismic vulnerability of the bridge in the form of fragility curves. Seismic resilience of the bridge is evaluated at various stages of its lifecycle by integrating bridge performance (or, vulnerability) under seismic events, resultant losses due to bridge damage, and its post-event recovery. Research outcome reveals time-dependent variation of seismic resilience of the studied bridge. As expected, high resilience of the bridge is obtained at its pristine condition, and the resilience value gradually reduces due to bridge deterioration with time.

The present work deals with an experimental and time history analysis of self drilled micropile (SDM) foundation using SAP2000-V18. Telecom towers are predominantly subjected to lateral wind and seismic loads having assorted constraints like site accessibility, small foundation area, weak soil strata, sites near restricted noise zone, and restricted construction completion time. Liquefiable grayish fine sand strata is observed in Delhi region of India. A group of four 14 m deep and 200 mm diameter (D) of SDM is reinforced with high strength Ischebeck Titan hallow anchor rod of 52 mm outer and 26 mm inner diameter. The full scale cyclic axial and lateral load test results denotes that the performance of SDM is good for axial tensile and compressive loads, but poor against the lateral loads. Time history parametric study is carried out for time, peak gravity acceleration (PGA), and centre to centre pile spacing and its outcome is the optimum pile spacing is in between 4 D to 4.5 D. Lateral pile displacement is proportional to PGA and pile spacing. Normalized curve for shear and moments is derived.

The construction industry is greatly dependent on concrete that uses natural resources for its production resulting in the depletion of natural resources such as aggregates and other cementitious materials. A judicious use of the accumulated waste and non-biodegradable items will help to reduce the construction cost and helps in sustainability. This study focuses on using non-conventional industrial and commercial wastes in concrete with special interest to meet the sheltering needs of economically weaker sections (EWS). Industrial wastes such as fly ash and GGBS are used as a part of replacement in cement. Natural sand is replaced with a combination of M-sand and waste glass obtained as a commercial waste in order to reduce the cost. To determine the strength and feasibility for the construction purposes, basic tests are performed on the cubes made from varying proportions of waste. The results indicate that the replacement of 30% cement with fly ash/GGBS along with 15% glass waste gives comparable strength with conventional concrete.

The need to produce sustainable concrete has pushed cement producers to replace 5 to 15% of their typical Portland cement (PC) mix with limestone to produce Portland limestone cement (PLC). The advantage of using PLC is the reduced energy and cost associated with the raw materials for manufacturing the cement. Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and fly ash are also increasingly used, to replace the cement by more than 20% by weight, while batching with concrete. This study evaluates the modified concrete mixtures with PLC and SCMs for their impact on the overall sustainability of concrete for its use in pavements and bridge decks. The LCA analyses for a bridge deck project in Chicago (USA) revealed that the construction phase of the bridge deck contributed the most to the negative environmental impacts and the total project cost for all concrete mixes assessed. In addition, the greatest difference in environmental impacts among different mixes was observed during raw material acquisition stage. Further, the concrete mixes employing fly ash as an amendment had the highest positive impact with respect to global warming, than by mixes employing slag amendment.

This study explored sustainable alternatives for the purpose of reconstructing a street through the downtown Oak Park, Illinois, USA. The standard design for pavement follows Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) design standards for hot mix asphalt and concrete pavements. Four design alternatives, two hot mix asphalt (HMA), and two concrete pavement designs were chosen to examine and identify the most sustainable design. A sustainability assessment was performed considering the broader environmental, economic, and social implications of the design alternatives. The life cycle environment impact analysis was performed to quantify the environmental impacts of each alternative. In addition, a life cycle cost assessment was performed by considering direct costs incurred by each design alternative. Finally, the social impacts (benefits) were identified for the case of with and without reconstruction of the street. The main focus of the study is to evaluate the alternatives and select the most sustainable option based on environmental impact analysis with due consideration to the economic and social aspects.

From a smart cities perspective, a smart water implementation and monitoring (SWIM) framework based on an asset centric framework built on IBM Maximo Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and solution is proposed and deployed. This framework enabled by IoT and mobility provides an integrated, scalable, and flexible platform which is based on industry standards. This study presents a part implementation of the SWIM instance for an industrial cluster commercial space. The setup environment includes fours modules, ACoRDS, ASenseS, ASFMS, and ASPMS leveraging on the pre-defined, asset, location modules, and meter functionality. Assets—pumps, generators, piping, and valves are identified as critical utility assets. The location is coupled with a GIS module and monitoring is conducted using meter as a sub module. The solution uses an asset condition rating system to establish a hierarchy of work priorities. The analytics of the system predictive and decision-making capability. In addition, the framework module estimates the remaining life of asset, assets existing value, and replacement cost for use in budget predictions and rehabilitation, replacement, or repair decisions. Importantly SWIM provides enhanced situational awareness of operations and vital insight for monitoring and maintaining the health of a water utility system, thus mitigating risk and ensuring sustained service, quality, and system resilience.

In the recent past—almost since a decade, structures which make use of diagrids are being increasingly constructed owing to their high structural efficiency especially in the case of lateral loads. This research work focuses on the topology optimization of a diagrid frame with respect to maximization of its natural frequency and minimization of its weight using differential evolution. The optimization process is carried out considering both the objective functions separately and also together as multi-objective optimization. The design parameters considered are the diagrid angle, thickness, and width of the diagrid sections used. From single objective optimization the optimum diagrid angles are obtained for three different cases of wind speeds such as 30 m/s, 44 m/s, and 55 m/s. Also the optimization problem aimed towards minimization of weight yields useful information regarding the variation profile of diagrid cross-sections with height. Further pareto-optimal sets are obtained using multi objective optimization.

India has history of devastating earthquakes and nearly 54% of area is vulnerable to earthquakes. Bridges being the critical links of any roadways transportation network are under threat of greater seismic risk. The present study evaluates the differences in risk assessment of bridges on typical rail mass transit system network consisting of pile-pier (i.e. considering soil-structure interaction) using incremental dynamic analysis and pushover methods. The fragility curves have been developed for three limit states and the probability of failure has been derived for a PGA of 0.24 g. The results using two methodologies have been compared in terms of reliability indices which highlight the need of appropriate selection of structural analysis method for assessing the reliability. This study will aid in evolving reliable design methodology thus ensuring the performance levels and more informed pre-disaster planning strategies to avoid seismic risk of bridges.

Over the past two decades, migration of people from rural regions to urban centers for workspace has given enormous impetus to urban growth trajectory in India. This process of urbanizing has made hinterland between core urban area and rural fringes more vulnerable to rapid urbanization. Urbanization is an irreversible phenomena and unplanned urbanization has severe effects on human beings and environment causing shortage of basic amenities such as air, land, and water (both surface and sub-surface). Indian cities have been no exception in this context. Technological interventions through building ecologically resilient cities are the need of smart India. Technologies such as remote sensing and GIS has always been appreciated in this regard as they help to monitor urban expansion which cannot be mapped with ease by conventional methods. This research aims to visualize the future scenarios of urban growth simulation using cellular automata (CA) based models. The model was developed with fuzzy AHP integrated CA-Markov model with temporal analysis of land use from 1990 onwards. These models were executed for a rapidly expanding city of Central India. Results of the model were proved to be satisfactory. Integrated model was successful in characterizing effectively the major pockets of urban growth through agents of change. Different exclusion layers were also considered in the analysis to improve modelling capability to predict the ground scenario more realistically. High-density urban sprawl especially along the major highway roads and infill type of expansion within municipal boundary limits is observed. Core urban areas were clustered together to form a monotonous urban patch type giving no scope for other categories such as agriculture, open fields, barren land, etc. to develop. The output from the model insisted to protect different land use types from getting urbanized and to promote sustainable development of these areas. This analysis has provided greater insights to understand the needs of building a combined spatial decision support network through upgradation on microscopic levels of city development. The model predicted the city would consist of majorly impervious layer urbanized by 2022 and immediate need to plan ecological resilient neighborhood and sustainable land use allocation by using visualized land use data.

Copious literature pertaining to the environmental impacts of sewerage systems across the globe exist but a comprehensive cost analysis is lacking in Indian context. The present study aims at determining the life-cycle cost (LCC) of various primary unit components and their relative contribution to the collection phase of conventional Indian sewer system. The system boundaries for the LCC analysis consists of the pipelines, pumping stations, manholes, and transportation facilities in a typical collection phase, by making use of existing activity data and necessary cost data from secondary literature. The analysis has been carried out for a period of 30 years for such projects. The total cost for all the units have taken into consideration the overall capital cost as well as the operation and maintenance cost. It is found that the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase of the system contributes to approximately 83% of the overall cost of US$37 million used in the total collection phase. It is noted that the improvement in efficiency of the pumps by 10% results in about 6% reduction in total costs.

In India and elsewhere tremendous amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW) are being generated in last one or two decades owing to large scale of reconstruction spree. It is putting tremendous pressure on natural resources. The use of recycle concrete aggregate (RCA) made from this waste can help us to reduce the consumption of natural resources, will economize and help in reducing environmental problems. This paper attempts to develop bench mark for the use of demolished waste concrete as a replacement of natural coarse aggregate in concrete. Experiments were performed to determine the physical and mechanical properties of RCA and compared with the properties of locally used crushed quartzite and granite aggregates. The RCA was prepared from the concrete blocks collected from demolition site of 25-30-year-old building. The properties of RCA were checked and compared with the properties of conventional concrete made using quartzite and granite. The cube specimens of size 100 mm were used to investigate the compressive strength of concrete for all concrete mixes. The results show that the compressive strength of concrete with RCA is comparable with that of natural crushed aggregates.

The city of Vadodara, the third largest in Gujarat, recently got a new international airport. An airport plays a vital role in the development of any city. Flooding of an airport especially the runway can cause serious damage to the connectivity of the city. Storm water modeling has a major role in assessment of urban floods and runoff for drainage system. This paper shows that study of storm water management model (SWMM) for the catchment of Vadodara Airport. The sub catchments have been provided with the help of ArcGIS and are modeled for peak rainfall event during period of 1986-2014. The study deals with a flexible set of hydraulic modeling capabilities, it is used to assess infiltration using Horton method and flow routing analysis using dynamic wave method. Analysis shows that more storm water flow due to water logging of pond behind airport catchment and improper drainage system of Vadodara City during peak rainfall days. Finally, the critical locations of overflow are identified, if any. The feasible solution of this problem is achieved in this case study by designing some general as well as systematic and appropriate design of storm water drainage.

Canopy roofs are used for different purposes in both rural and urban areas. But the information about the wind loads on different shapes of canopy roofs is scarce in codes and books. This paper presents the study of wind pressure distribution on multi-span mono-slope canopy roof with different wind incidence angles. Experiments are carried out in open circuit wind tunnel under boundary layer flow. Scale of the model used in the experimental study is 1:50. The effect of wind incidence angles from 0° to 180° with increment of 30° on mono-slope canopy roof with 15° roof slope for both upper and lower roof surface has been studied. This paper presents the results in the form of contours and cross sectional variation of mean wind pressure coefficients. Results presented in the paper are of great use for the structural designers while designing mono-slope canopy roofs. The experts responsible for revising standards on wind loads from time to time can also make use of these values.