A study on erosion of soft sediment deposits

Erosional pattern of fine cohesive sediment must be defined to predict the transport model in estuarial water Resistance to erosion is largely dependent on physicochemical properties of sediment and fluid, as well as the interparticle bond which is characterized by shear strength. Successively incremental flow-induced bed shear stress is applied to initiate layer by layer erosion of soft cohesive sediment deposit to determine the rate of erosion. A decrease in erosion rate is observed at the end of each time step. This behavior is due to the increasing shear strength with depth. The rate of erosion was found to vary exponentially with cubic root of excess bed shear stres

Density of statically deposited bed

Variation of density for statically deposited cohesive sediment bed was investigated under the effect of salinity and consolidation period. The density of natural mud and kaolinite bed was found to increase with depth. This was due to the variation in initial suspension concentration and overburden. Salinity is found to have little effect on bed density, while consolidation causes the bed density to increase with depth. Overall density for kaolinite is higher than natural mud. The density profile for seven test beds is nearly S shap

Programme Outcomes Assessment for Civil & Structural Engineering Courses at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

AbstractProgramme Outcomes (PO) is the expected achievement of the level of knowledge, skills and abilities essential to each student after their graduation. The Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, UKM has established 10 POs, PO1 to PO10 for all undergraduate courses from Year 1 to Year 4. Measurements of the POs are made through several assessments such as tutorials, quizzes, laboratory works, projects, mid-semester examinations and final examinations. This study presents the results from calculations based on the POs of the final examinations for two semesters (semester 1 and semester 2) of session 2010/2011 Civil & Structural and Civil & Environmental Engineering undergraduate programmes. It was made using the average marks for the sample of five excellent students, five moderate students and five weak students for all courses which have final examinations. The results showed an average overall marks for the PO4 is the highest around 78% followed by PO3 and PO10 which are about 68% and 63% respectively, while PO1 and PO2 have the lowest values which are around 56%-59%

Composting fruit and vegetable waste using black soldier fly larvae

In recent years, the amount of solid waste generated has been increasing, and larger land space is needed for the disposal of the generated waste. One of the ways to deal with the limited landfill space is by composting organic waste using black soldier fly larvae. This study aims to determine the percentage of BSFL growth and to assess the effectiveness of using BSFL in composting fruits, boiled vegetables, and raw vegetables. The waste used in this study was collected from the college cafeteria and sorted into three waste categories, and 100g of each waste category was placed in different containers. Two different sets of experiments were carried out using an initial weight of 2g and 4g of BSFL. Within 17-days experiment, the weight of BSFL and composted waste were measured every three or four days, also an additional 100g of new waste was added to the containers until the amount of waste reached a total of 500g. The BSFL fed with the fruit waste has the highest growth percentage of 1700% relative to their initial weight of 2g. The BSFL with a higher initial density of 4g showed a lower percentage growth of 1200%. Fruit waste showed the highest percentage of weight reduction of 57%. This study has proven that fruit waste is a more suitable medium for larval growth compared to vegetable waste. The use of BSFL in organic waste composting is an effective method for reducing the amount of wastes disposed of in landfills