Challenge of Using Non-Degradable Waste Material Polystyrene Packing in Reinforced Concrete Design and Construction

Weight and Environmental concerns are two elements that have made the search for alternative materials of construction critical in today’s construction industry. The importance of finding a solution to the problem has given rise to the use of non-degradable materials. This study examines the challenges of making such material as polystyrene used in product packaging a part of the structural element in construction. Such adventure it is envisaged reduced the volume and number of landfill sites in Nigeria where air pollution arising from dump sites affects the health of citizens. To achieve this aim, Styrofoam was used as a partial replacement for coarse aggregate (granite) by volume. The replacement was carried out in varying percentages of 10, 20 and 30% Styrofoam concretes respectively with a concrete mix ratio of 1:1:2. The result obtained showed that concrete produced using Styrofoam as the alternative aggregate possess lesser values of compressive strength when compared with the control of conventional concrete without Styrofoam. The optimal percentage of a replacement for Styrofoam concrete was 10% with a compressive strength of 21.33 N/mm2 while the control concrete had a compressive strength of 33.26 N/mm2. The loss of strength of Styrofoam concrete is compensated by the reduction of the requirement for landfill sites and the attendant pollution generated while the concrete can be used for non-structural elements in construction

Vibration-Based Structural Health Monitoring: Theoretical Foundations and Experimental Validation on Reinforced Concrete Beams

Quick identification of damages in structures is of great importance to engineers. Among the various techniques available for the evaluation of reinforced concrete structural integrity, non-destructive tests method remain a viable one as its use can lead to speedy decisions that bring savings on repairs or replacement of damaged reinforced concrete structures. This research uses modal parameter-based non- destructive tests to assess damages in reinforced concrete beams under static load. Four-point static loadings were applied to the 3 RC beams to induce three damage scenarios. After each static loading, a dynamic test was performed to access the degree of stiffness degradation. Modal frequencies and mode shapes obtained depicts clearly the stiffness degradations of the beams as the severity of damages on the beams became more pronounced. Results obtained showed that the research procedure adopted is a smart approach for damage assessment in reinforced concrete element

Nigerian Failed Developmental Strides: Can Agriculture Break the Jinx?

All over the world, industrialization is the principal underpinning of sustainable economic growth. But the attainment of industrialization and the accompanying economic stability that guarantee wellbeing for the population have not been that easy for the developing nations. In the free-for all quest for economic advancement, each people, nation, and continent adopt strategies it deems appropriate to pursue its goal. Agriculture have been a common denominator for all nations of the earth, whether developed or under developed. That has been the starting point for the advanced nations through the primitive age to the industrial revolution age to the present information/knowledge worker’s age. As they transited from one age to the other, they made use of acquired knowledge and available resources to move forward. Africa also started with agriculture through the primitive age to the current information/knowledge worker’s age without much to show in terms of economic stability and wellbeing of it citizens. This can be traced to the various approaches they adopted towards industrialization. Before independence, most African countries experienced sustainable growth with agriculture as the core activity. After independence, the discovery and exploitation of various types of mineral resources made many African nations to loose focus in agriculture thereby turning them to major importers of food. Over the recent years, Nigeria being one of such nations is faced with the burden of increasing food importation bill which in the near future may become unsustainable, there by creating crises that will destabilize the nation

Experimental Study on the Use of Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and River Sand in Roof Tile Production

This study deals with the effects of using Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and river sand in roof tile production. This work is based on experimental study of roof tiles produced with river sand and recycled PET in varying proportion of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% and 100% of PET combined with the corresponding fine aggregate percentage. The PET plastics used were derived from waste plastic bottles for soft drinks. The shredded plastic was subjected to heat and ensured that it does not lose it’s plasticity. The tests which were performed to evaluate the physical and mechanical performance of this material were sieve analysis, specific gravity, water absorption, density and compressive strength. The results show that recycled PET replacement gives better results for 40 and 50% of plastic composite tile than Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at 28 days. In conclusion, the plastic composite tiles have both good strength and absorptive property for roof tiling

Soil Stabilization for Road Construction: Comparative Analysis of a Three-Prong Approach

The paper aim to assess and compare the stabilizing effect of three materials, cement, sodium chloride and brick dust on clay soil found at locations during road construction. To achieve this, the powder forms of samples of each of the three materials are mixed to clay soils in various percentages of 2%, 6%, 10% and 14%. The moisture content, specific gravity, sieve analysis, atterberg limit tests were carried out to classify the soil using the AASHTO classification system. Based on the results obtained the soil sample corresponds to group A-2-7 (Clayey Sand) and poorly graded sand with clay (SP-SC) soil type for use as drainage and subgrade material. According to the classification, this is acceptable for stabilization of soil. Specific gravity, sieve analysis, atterberg limit, compaction, California bearing ratio (CBR), swell index were carried out on the soil with and without the addition of (cement, sodium chloride, brick dust). The results showed improvement in the maximum dry density value on addition of cement, sodium chloride with gradual increase from 2% to 14%, the brick dust content showed gradual increase up to 6%and after which it started to decrease at 10% and 14%. The three materials are therefore recommended as stabilizing agents for use in road construction where clay soils play a significant part in early deterioration of this important fulcrum of Nigeria national development

Nigerian Rain Gauge Station Optimization and National Development: The importance of Head Count

Effective planning for water resources infrastructures requires accurate and up to date data of the water source. The aim of the research is the optimization of the number of rain gauges required for planning for the volume of water in a watershed which is an absolute necessity for the economic development of the nation. To achieve this, the statistical tolerable error method of non-weighted approach was used to determine the optimum number of rain gauges required for an area that efficiently estimates the rainfall of the watershed. The result obtained indicates that Nigeria require a minimum of 1057 rain gauges to cover its land area of 923300 Km2 and meet the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) requirement for the Tropical, Mediterranean and Temperate zone. However, Nigeria has 87 existing and operating rain gauge stations presently. This number is grossly inadequate and need to be increased substantially by the opening up of extra 970 stations to meet the minimum requirement of WMO and hence enhance national development through proper water resources planning

COMPARING NETWORK DESIGN APPROACHES IN AREAL RAINFALL ESTIMATE OF NIGERIA RIVER BASINS

This work shows the importance of rain gauge network analysis in the determination of the number of rain gauges that will accurately estimate the mean rainfall of an area. This research therefore looked at the two design approaches viz weighted and non-weighted approaches that will best estimate the number of rain gauges required in a catchment area. From this, it was established that the 87 existing and operating rain gauges in Nigeria is grossly inadequate and hence the need to improve the density to meet World Meteorological Organization (WMO) minimum requirement for the country’s geographical location. To do this, the reallocated existing and operating rain gauges is added to the optimum results obtained through the weighted and non-weighted design approaches and hence improve on the existing network density. It is expected that financial considerations may play a role in determining the total number of gauges chosen for the country hence should be determine

Effect of Climate Change Pollutants on the Corrosion Rate of Steel in Rural, Urban and Industrial Environments

Ever since industrial revolution, the world climatic conditions have been deteriorating due to the ever increasing amount of air pollutants injected into the atmosphere. This has adversely affected the health of living organism, plants and the environment that host them. Building structures are not left out in the devastating effects of air pollution as metallic components are easily oxidized leading to corrosion. Corrosion of steel materials due to environmental pollutants has become an issue of great concern to researchers all over the world. This paper looked at the effect of climate pollutants in the air as they affect weathering steel in rural, urban and industrial environment. The corrosion process in steel over time and how it varies in rural, urban and industrial environments were considered. The overall objective of this work is to underscore the factors that have impact on the progressive deterioration of materials exposed to atmospheric weathering. The climate and air pollution parameters that affect material losses are identified and their numeric values obtained vie dose response functions. The results obtained show tha

STATISTICAL EVALUATION OF HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL DATA: A CASE STUDY OF ISHIAGU IN SOUTH-EAST ZONE NIGERIA

For any Engineering project to be efficient, it must be based on consistent and reliable data with good analysis. Reliability, especially for hydro-meteorological data depends on the method of collection, analysis and storage. Ishiagu weather data has been collected since the inception of the school of agriculture in the town in 1997 to date. Statistical analysis of the randomly varying data to check for their consistency and reliability is necessary before use. In this regard, the monthly data set is analysed for annual mean, trends and seasonal distribution pattern. A significant finding of this analysis is that the monthly rainfall has bimodal distribution with peaks in July and September. For the temperature of the area, it showed a sinusoidal pattern due to the seasons and this also reflects on the relative humidity of the area. A regression analysis of the three data of rainfall, temperature and relative humidity indicates a coefficient of correlation of r = 0.3, t = -0.40 and rh = -0.67. Because of the low state of the coefficient of correlation of the three parameters it may be necessary to recheck with either power, exponential or polynomial functions. From the determination of frequency of extreme events using Gumbel distribution, the highest annual rainfall value is determined to have a return period of less than 20years and the 17years records also was adjudged adequate