Studying Structural Behavior of Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam Using Finite Element Method

Concrete faced rock fill dam has been increasingly popular among dam engineers due to their inherent advantages over other type of dams. The construction of concrete faced rockfill dam has been conducted in full swing in recent years. But still there is some crucial problems needed further investigation. In this study an attempt has been made to investigate various aspects related to the structural analysis of concrete face rockfill dams, this involved, physical modelling, constitutive modelling, effect of concrete slab and simulation of sequence of construction. To model sequential stages of construction of concrete faced rockfill dam the Dead- Birth-Ghost element technique was used. The physical modeling was carried out using finite-infinite elements to represent bedding media, eight and six noded isoparametric elements were used for modeling the dam body and the concrete face respectively. Moreover the interfacial behavior between the concrete face and the body of the dam was modeled using interface element. The constitutive modeling has body of the dam was modeled using interface element. The constitutive modeling has been accounted by employing the hyperbolic nonlinear elastic model. So based on the above physical and material modeling a two dimension linear and nonlinear finite element program with different type of isoparametric elements was written. The verification of the program was well established by analyzing certain bench mark examples. The applicability of the above program has been illustrated by analyzing two concrete faced rockfill dam namely; Kavar dam currently under construction in Iran (53.5 m), and Bakun dam currently under construction in the state of Sarawak Malaysia (205 m). The results indicates that the sequences of construction, reservoir filling and nonlinear material behavior have significant effects on the structural response of the dam in terms of displacement and stresses and need to be considered for accurate prediction of the structural behavior of the dam and focuses on the effect of face slab on the distribution of deformation and stresses developed due to the static loading including gravitation and reservoir loading

Phytotoxicity of <em>Plantago major</em> Extracts on Germination and Seedling Growth of Purslane (<em>Portulaca oleracea</em>)

Plantago major L. (Plantaginaceae family) has been used as herbal remedies for centuries in almost all over the world and in the treatment of a number of diseases. This study aims to assess the allelopathic potential of Plantago major extracts on the germination and early seedling growth of purslane. Total phenols, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, and alkaloids were determined in P. major. Furthermore, concentrations of 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg.ml−1 of both alcoholic and aqueous extracts were prepared to study their phytotoxic effect on the germination and seedling growth of Portulaca oleracea weed. In our study, showing the germination of P. oleracea was completely inhibited (96.30 mg.ml−1) under treatment of P. major methanolic extracts at 40 mg ml−1. Moreover, both radicle and plumule were strongly inhibited (87.20 and 74.29 mg.ml−1, respectively) under the same treatment. This could be attributed to the high content of bioactive constituents. Therefore, this species can be used in the method of biological control of weeds. In addition, further studies are required to identify and characterize the proper allelochemicals and demonstrate their modes of action

Multiplateau structure in photoemission spectra of strong-field ionization of dense media

Strong-field ionization of dense molecular gases in a short infrared laser pulse is studied by means of photoelectron spectroscopy combined with a liquid microjet technique. By increasing the gas density, we observe how the laser- assisted electron scattering on neighboring particles becomes a dominant mechanism of hot electron emission. The angle-resolved energy distributions of rescattered electrons are obtained by analyzing the density dependency of emission spectra. A semiclassical consideration of electron trajectories is shown to provide a good description of experimental spectra. The model predicts the existence of four energy plateaus. Two cutoffs at higher energies are evident in the spectra

Cost evaluation and optimisation of hybrid multi effect distillation and reverse osmosis system for seawater desalination

YesIn this research, the effect of operating parameters on the fresh water production cost of hybrid Multi Effect Distillation (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) system is investigated. To achieve this, an earlier comprehensive model developed by the authors for MED + RO system is combined with two full-scale cost models of MED and RO processes collected from the literature. Using the economic model, the variation of the overall fresh water cost with respect to some operating conditions, namely steam temperature and steam flow rate for the MED process and inlet pressure and flow rate for the RO process, is accurately investigated. Then, the hybrid process model is incorporated into a single-objective non-linear optimisation framework to minimise the fresh water cost by finding the optimal values of the above operating conditions. The optimisation results confirm the economic feasibility of the proposed hybrid seawater desalination plant

Performance analysis of hybrid system of multi effect distillation and reverse osmosis for seawater desalination via modeling and simulation

YesThe coupling of thermal (Multi Stage Flash, MSF) and membrane processes (Reverse Osmosis, RO) in desalination systems has been widely presented in the literature to achieve an improvement of performance compared to an individual process. However, very little study has been made to the combined Multi Effect Distillation (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) processes. Therefore, this research investigates several design options of MED with thermal vapor compression (MED_TVC) coupled with RO system. To achieve this aim, detailed mathematical models for the two processes are developed, which are independently validated against the literature. Then, the integrated model is used to investigate the performance of several configurations of the MED_TVC and RO processes in the hybrid system. The performance indicators include the fresh water productivity, energy consumption, fresh water purity, and recovery ratio. Basically, the sensitivity analysis for each configuration is conducted with respect to seawater conditions and steam supply variation. Most importantly, placing the RO membrane process upstream in the hybrid system generates the overall best configuration in terms of the quantity and quality of fresh water produced. This is attributed to acquiring the best recovery ratio and lower energy consumption over a wide range of seawater salinity

Optimisation of multi effect distillation based desalination system for minimum production cost for freshwater via repetitive simulation

YesThe shortage of fresh water resources is a global problem which requires a prompt solution. Thus, the multi effect distillation (MED) was successfully used for the production of fresh water from seawater. Despite the use of MED desalination system extensively, the influence of the number of effects on the fresh water production cost has not been covered in the open literature. Thus, this paper tries to rectify this specific challenge via simulation at given operating conditions of seawater salinity and temperature. The study is performed using a detailed mathematical model contains the suitable cost correlations. gPROMS model builder suite has been used to carry out an extensive simulation. The results of the study show that the lowest fresh water production cost can be achieved at an optimal number of effects of 17 for a certain operating conditions

Religious faith and psychosocial adaptation among stroke patients in Kuwait: A mixed method study

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 Springer Science+Business Media.Religious faith is central to life for Muslim patients in Kuwait, so it may influence adaptation and rehabilitation. This study explored quantitative associations among religious faith, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in 40 female stroke patients and explored the influence of religion within stroke rehabilitation through qualitative interviews with 12 health professionals. The quantitative measure of religious faith did not relate to life satisfaction or self-efficacy in stroke patients. However, the health professionals described religious coping as influencing adaptation post-stroke. Fatalistic beliefs were thought to have mixed influences on rehabilitation. Measuring religious faith among Muslims through a standardized scale is debated. The qualitative accounts suggest that religious beliefs need to be acknowledged in stroke rehabilitation in Kuwait

SPARC 2018 Internationalisation and collaboration : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2018 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the launch of our Doctoral School, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 100 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Skeletal muscle properties and fatigue resistance in relation to smoking history

Although smoking-related diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are often accompanied by increased peripheral muscle fatigability, the extent to which this is a feature of the disease or a direct effect of smoking per se is not known. Skeletal muscle function was investigated in terms of maximal voluntary isometric torque, activation, contractile properties and fatigability, using electrically evoked contractions of the quadriceps muscle of 40 smokers [19 men and 21 women; mean (SD) cigarette pack years: 9.9 (10.7)] and age- and physical activity level matched non-smokers (22 men and 23 women). Maximal strength and isometric contractile speed did not differ significantly between smokers and non-smokers. Muscle fatigue (measured as torque decline during a series of repetitive contractions) was greater in smokers (P = 0.014), but did not correlate with cigarette pack years (r = 0.094, P = 0.615), cigarettes smoked per day (r = 10.092, P = 0.628), respiratory function (%FEV1pred) (r = −0.187, P = 0.416), or physical activity level (r = −0.029, P = 0.877). While muscle mass and contractile properties are similar in smokers and non-smokers, smokers do suffer from greater peripheral muscle fatigue. The observation that the cigarette smoking history did not correlate with fatigability suggests that the effect is either acute and/or reaches a ceiling, rather than being cumulative. An acute and reversible effect of smoking could be caused by carbon monoxide and/or other substances in smoke hampering oxygen delivery and mitochondrial function