Deformation of an elastic layer coupling in different ways to a base due to a very long vertical strike-slip dislocation

The closed-form analytic expressions for the displacement and stresses at any point of an elastic layer lying over a base due to a very long vertical strike-slip dislocation are obtained. The interface between the layer and the base is assumed to be either ‘smooth-rigid’ or ‘rough-rigid’ or ‘welded’. The variations of displacement and stresses with the horizontal distance from the fault for different types of coupling of the layer with the base have been studied. It is found that the displacement for ‘welded interface’ lies between the displacements due to ‘smooth rigid’ and ‘rough-rigid’ interfaces for different positions of the observer and different values of the ratio of rigidities of the layer and half-space.     

Drinking water quality in villages of southwestern Haryana,India: assessing human health risks associated with hydrochemistry

The chemical quality of groundwater of western Haryana, India was assessed for its suitability for drinking purposes. A total of 275 water samples were collected from deep aquifer based hand-pumps situated in 37 different villages/towns of Bhiwani region. The water samples were analyzed for different physico-chemical properties, e.g., pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), total harness (TH), total alkalinity (TA), calcium, magnesium, carbonate, bicarbonate, sulphate, chloride and fluoride concentrations. In this study, the average TDS content was greater ranging 1,692 (Bhiwani block) to 2,560 mg l⁻¹ (Siwani block), and other important parameters of water, e.g., TA (442–1,232 mg l⁻¹), TH (437–864 mg l⁻¹) and bicarbonate (554–672 mg l⁻¹), were also higher than maximum permissible limit by WHO or BIS. The fluoride appeared as a major problem of safe drinking water in this region. We recorded greater fluoride concentration, i.e., 86.0 mg l⁻¹ from Motipura village that is highest fluoride level ever recorded for Haryana state. The average fluoride concentration ranged between 7.1 and 0.8 mg l⁻¹ in different blocks of western Haryana. On the basis of fluoride concentration, Siwani block showed the maximum number of water samples (84% of total collected samples) unsuitable for drinking purposes (containing fluoride >1.5 mg l⁻¹) followed by Charki Dadri block (58%), Bhiwani block (52%), Bawani Khera block (33%) and Loharu block (14%). This study clearly suggest that some health deteriorating chemicals in drinking water were at dangerous level and; therefore, water quality could be a major health threat for local residents of western Haryana. The high fluoride level in drinking water has posed some serious dental health risks in local residents.     

Plain strain problem of poroelasticity using eigenvalue approach

A plain strain problem of an isotropic elastic liquid-saturated porous medium in poroelasticity has been studied. The eigenvalue approach using the Laplace and Fourier transforms has been employed and these transforms have been inverted by using a numerical technique. An application of infinite space with concentrated force at the origin has been presented to illustrate the utility of the approach. The displacement and stress components in the physical domain are obtained numerically. The results are shown graphically and can be used for a broad class of problems related to liquid-saturated porous media.     

Field study on influence of root characteristics on soil suction distribution in slopes vegetated with Cynodon dactylon and Schefflera heptaphylla

Vegetation evapotranspiration (ET) induced soil water suction reduces hydraulic conductivity and increases shear strength of slopes. Several field studies have been conducted to investigate suction distribution in vegetated slopes. However, these studies were conducted on natural slopes, which are prone to heterogeneity in vegetation and soil conditions. Moreover, studies quantifying the effect of different vegetation species, root characteristics (root depth and root area index) and transpiration reduction function (T_rf) on suction in slopes under natural variation are rare. This study investigated the suction distribution and root characteristics in recompacted slopes vegetated with two different species, i.e. Cynodon dactylon (Bermuda grass) and Schefflera heptaphylla (ivy tree). Bare slope served as a control. Suction distributions during different seasons and rainfall events were monitored. It is found that during the dry season, slope vegetated with young Schefflera heptaphylla seedlings have substantially higher suction within the root zone compared with bare slope and slope vegetated with Cynodon dactylon. This is because Schefflera heptaphylla has a higher root biomass, T_rf and ET than Cynodon dactylon. It was also found that suctions within root zones of vegetated slopes and bare slope were completely destroyed under rainfall events corresponding to 2 years and 20 years return period. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of square and rectangular footings subjected to eccentric-inclined load resting on reinforced sand

In the present paper, a method of analysis for calculating the pressure intensity corresponding to a given settlement for eccentrically and obliquely loaded square and rectangular footings resting on reinforced soil foundation has been presented. The process has been simplified by presenting non-dimensional charts for the various terms used in the analysis, which can be directly used by practicing engineers. An approximate method has been suggested to find out the ultimate bearing capacity of such footings on reinforced soil. The results have been validated with the model test results. The procedure has been made clear by giving an illustrative example.     

Analysis and Design of Retaining Wall having Reinforced Cohesive Frictional Backfill

The case of a rigid wall with inclined back face retaining reinforced cohesive-frictional backfill subjected to uniformly distributed surcharge load has been analyzed using limit equilibrium approach. The analysis considers the stability of an element of the failure wedge, which is assumed to develop in the reinforced earth mass adjoining the back face of wall. The non-dimensional charts have been developed for computing the lateral earth pressure on wall and the height of its point of application above the base of wall. The theoretical findings have been verified by model tests on a rigid wall retaining a dry cohesive-frictional soil reinforced by geogrid strips. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. A design example has been included to illustrate the design procedure.     

Analyses and settlement study of a group of two,three and four partially stiffened floating granular piles

ABSTRACT

Use of granular pile as a ground improvement technique in case of soft soils is one of the reliable and economic options. Analysis of a partially stiffened group of granular floating piles has been numerically assessed and presented here. Partial stiffening simply means that instead of using conventional material for making the granular pile (GP) in its full length, top region is replaced partially by some suitable material, having better mechanical properties, i.e. higher deformation modulus. Various normalised parameters like settlement influence factor for top of GP, settlement interaction factor, settlement reduction factor, percentage load shared by the base and shear stress distribution along the length of the granular pile are evaluated. The settlement influence factor for top of GP is found to decrease with the increase in the values of the stiffening parameters. The interfacial shear stresses get redistributed along the length of the granular pile.     

A New Approach to 3D Dense LiDAR Data Classification in Urban Environment

Classification of Mobile Mapping LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data is a challenge in the research community since the day when laser scanner system were integrated and mounted on vehicles for collection of 3D data in urban environment. The approach proposed here for classifying LiDAR data is analogous to the process followed for classifying data from satellite images. Pixel based and segmentation based methods have been employed in past for classifying images obtained from satellites. These methods were based on spectral properties of objects present in the images. But for Mobile mapping LiDAR data this approach has been applied and tested for the first time. The properties of this data are completely different from that of satellite images. So even if the basic approach remains the same, many changes have to be made in the entire classification process. The paper here aims to propose the basic procedure of using pixel-wise classification on dense 3D LiDAR data.     

Sugarcane crop identification from LISS IV data using ISODATA,MLC, and indices based decision tree approach

Image classification is one of the crucial techniques in detecting the crops from remotely sensed data. Crop identification and discrimination provide an important basis for many agricultural applications with various purposes, such as cropping pattern analysis, acreage estimation, and yield estimation. Accurate and faster estimation of crop area is very essential for projecting yearly agriculture production for deciding agriculture policies. Remote sensing is a technique that allows mapping of large areas in a fast and economical way. In many applications of remote sensing, a user is often interested in identifying the specific crop only while other classes may be of no interest. Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-P6) LISS IV sensor image of spatial resolution 5.8 m has been used to identify the sugarcane crop for the Chhapar village of Muzaffarnagar District, India. Classification of satellite data is one of the primary steps for information extraction for crop land identification. In recent years, decision tree approach to image analysis has been developed for the assessment and improvement of traditional statistically based image classification. In this study, ISODATA, MLC, and vegetation indices based decision tree approaches are used for classifying LISS IV imagery. The 11 vegetation index images have been generated for decision tree classification. All the three methods are compared and it is found that the best performance is given by the decision tree method. Vegetation indices based decision tree method for sugarcane classification, the user’s accuracy, producer’s accuracy, overall accuracy, and kappa coefficient were found 88.17, 86.59, and 87.93% and 0.86 respectively.     

Re-Look to Conventional Techniques for Trapping Efficiency Estimation of a Reservoir

All reservoirs are subjected to sediment inflow and deposition up to a certain extent leading to reduction in their capacity. Thus, the important practical problem related to the life of reservoir is the estimation of sedimentation quantity in the reservoirs. Large number of methods and models are available for estimation of reservoir sedimentation process. However, each model differs greatly in terms of their complexity, inputs and other requirements. In the simplest way, the fraction of sediment deposit in the reservoir can be determined through the knowledge of its trap efficiency. Trap efficiency （Te） is the proportion of the incoming sediment that is deposited or trapped in a reservoir. Most of the Te estimation methods define a relationship of the T, of the reservoir to their capacity and annual inflow, generally through curves. In this study, the empirical relationships given by Brune and Brown were used and compared for estimating the trap efficiency of Gobindsagar Reservoir （Bhakra Dam） on Satluj River in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, in the Himalayan region of India. A new set of regression equations has been developed for Brune＇s method and compared with Brown and other available Brune＇s equations. It has been found that Brune＇s equations developed in the present study estimated better than the other Brune＇s equations reported in literature. Later, in the present study it was found that Brown＇s approach was over estimating the T,. Hence it was again modified for Gobindsagar reservoir. It was also identified that sediments coming to this particular reservoir were mainly of coarse nature.