CEE - rb19 Civil Eng Research

CONTENTS
IN FOCUS CONSTRUCTION Evaluation of Guarantee as a Put Option using Monte Carlo Simulation The Case of the Second Link Creating and Sustaining Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Construction Enterprises in China Problems of Overseas Ventures for Singapore Construction SMEs Competitive Strategies and Competitive Advantages of Large Chinese Construction Enterprises Research Findings on International Strategic Management of Chinese Construction Firms A Simple Flow Control Tool for a Real-time Evacuation System Augmented with Virtual Reality ENVIRONMENT Selection of Microbial Seeds for Fast Granulation in Aerobic Treatment of Wastewater Stabilization/Solidification of Industrial Waste Sludges using MSWI Fly Ash Occurrence of G-Bacteria in Aerobic Granules Distribution of EPS and Cell Surface Hydrophobicity in Aerobic Granules Size-Dependent Diffusion Limitation in Aerobic Granules Biological Treatment of Municipal Wastewater by Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Process Treatment of Lipid-Containing Food Waste in Hybrid Anaerobic Solid-Liquid (HASL) System Characterisation of Fouling on Spent Ultrafiltration Membrane Surface from a Commercial Membrane Bioreactor Ultrasonication of Sludge for Anaerobic Digestion GEOTECHNICS Hydrofracturing In-Situ Stress Measurements in Singapore Granite PerformanceBased Acceptance Criteria for Quality Control of Reclaimed Sandfill Soil Improvement for Tree Stability Numerical Study on Crack Propagation and Shear Behavior of Jointed Rock Mass MARITIME STUDIES A Measurement and Comparison of Cost Competitiveness of Container Ports in Southeast Asia STRUCTURES Allowable Free Span of Rigid Risers An Experimental Study on Fatigue Behaviour of Partially Overlapped Tubular K-Joint Failure Assessment Diagram of Damaged Square Hollow Section T-joints Analysis of Foam Claddings for Blast Alleviation 1 10 12 14 16 18 19 The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics by Considering Material Inhomogeneity Ground Motions Recorded in Singapore during the Nias, Northern Sumatra Earthquake (MW = 8.7) of 28 March 2005 Electromechanical Impedance Modeling of PZT Active Sensors for Health Monitoring of Cylindrical Shell Structures Krylov Precise Time-Step Integration Method Fuzzy GA for Optimal Vibration Control of Smart Cylindrical Shells Numerical Characterization of Structural Response to Above-Ground Explosions Generic Beam-Column Model for Response to Impulsive Ground Shocks Reinforced Concrete Frames Subjected To Explosion-Induced Ground Motions (EIGMS) SPATIAL INFORMATION Three-Dimensional Geological Map of Singapore with 3D GIS Software TRANSPORTATION Functional Framework for an Optimum Liner Service Network Planning System Survey on Performance of a GPS-Based Vehicle Tracking and Communication System for Container Transport in Logistics Investigation of a Car-Following Model Using a Desired Spacing Criterion Enhancement of Expressway Incident Detection through Algorithm Fusion Road Traffic Accident Models for Signalised Four-Legged Junctions WATER Structure of Secondary Flows in Open Channel wuth Longitudinal Bedforms Which is the Best Time of Concentration Formula for Overland Flow? Effects of Meteorological and Hydrogeological Factors on Gross Recharge Percentage at Unconfined Sandy Aquifers with an Equatorial Climate Field Column Study of Organic Removal Efficiency in a Shallow Vadose Zone Measuring Shear Stresses on a Hollow Fibre Membrane with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) Propagation of Tsunami in Malacca Strait A Solitary Wave Approach RESEARCH REPORTS Abstracts of Research Reports Abstracts of PhD Theses PUBLICATIONS 58
School of Civil & Environmental Engineering

60
Nanyang Technological University

http://www.ntu.edu.sg/cee/research/bulletin/index.asp NO. 19, 2006
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/cee/
62 64
ISSN 0219-0370
CIVIL
66 68 70
IN FOCUS
New Frontier in Civil Engineering Research
ivil engineers play a pivotal role in the unprecedented changes of the world today. As in the tradition, they often endeavor to push the boundaries of what is possible in the profession in order to improve the living standards of human society. In line with these changes, R & D works in civil engineering have to strive to make an impact environmentally as well as globally. From the traditional research areas in environment, water resources, structures, construction, geotechnics and transportation, new frontiers are continuously being explored to meet the challenges of the information era. The goal of research activities conducted in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering is to advance the state of knowledge in important fields of civil engineering and to achieve international recognition and leadership in niche areas of research. Under the Schools strategic plan, future CEE research activities will be built around two anchor blocks, namely Homeland Security Environmental Engineering Core competencies in traditional, technical disciplines will be consolidated to leverage on the thematic-research on Homeland Security so that the existing research strength with governmental organizations and private industries can be further enhanced. Researchers from other disciplines could be invited to participate so that it can be broadened to areas beyond traditional civil engineering. Another important theme is Environmental Engineering. Research context will be broadened to include infrastructure systems and engineering, urban planning and management, facilities management, Public-Private Partnership types of procurement for public assets and facilities, environmental management and industrial ecology in line with market development trends such as globalization.
ENGINEERING
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An important and strategic inclusion to the School in the past year is Maritime Studies, which is a multidisciplinary study in various aspects of the maritime industry. In the context of international trade, maritime transport is the dominant mode for shipping of the vast majority of products. The maritime industry plays a vital role in facilitating trade and hence economic activities. As such, Maritime Studies is largely related to the business aspects of these economic activities. It combines management, economics, organizational, logistic, legal, financial and technological topics in the maritime industry. The inclusion of this discipline into the family poses a challenge to the traditional civil engineering family. However, Maritime research presents vast opportunities at various levels, such as shipping company, port, community and shipboard levels. Research topics cover a broad range of subjects such as shipping network design, port planning, shipping operations and management, maritime security, shipping market and freight analysis, maritime policy and regulation.
RESEARCH
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Management of research
In order to optimize resources to achieve research objectives of the School, it is imperative that an efficient management scheme be in place to support research activities. To this end, the School has set aside resources coordinated by the Vice-Dean (Research) to identify and solve administrative problems to ensure the highest efficiency for researchers. In the School, research activities are structured in groups with shared interests. Eight major research groups have been identified in the School as follows:
EDITORIAL BOARD
Chiew Yee Meng - Chairman Ashraf Hefney (Geotechnics) Carmel Heah (Language Editor) Charles Cheah (Construction Technology & Management) Francesco Cavallaro (Language Editor) Karina Gin (Environment) Lee Chi King (Structures) Li Shu Yun (Language Editor) Lloyd Chua (Water) Ma Guowei (Mechanics) Susan Khoo (Language Editor) Tan Yan Weng (Transportation) Tor Yam Khoon (Surveying)
ADDITIONAL COPIES AND ENQUIRIES

For general enquiries about this publication, and to request for additional copies, please write to : The Dean School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Avenue Singapore 639798 Tel : 65-67905264 Fax : 65-67910676 Email : D-CEE@ntu.edu.sg
2006
Published by Dean, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Printed by PHOTOPLATES PTE LTD
Major Research Group Structures and Mechanics
Areas of Research Focus Computational Mechanics Dynamics and Seismic Engineering Structural Connections Protective Technology Concrete and Building Technology Construction Management Wind Engineering Waste Minimization, Recycling and Resource Recovery Membrane Technology Biotechnology in Wastewater Treatment Sediment Transport and Coastal Management Integrated Urban Stormwater Management Transport Planning and Modeling Traffic Management and Control Pavement Materials and Technology Foundations of High-Rise Buildings Land Reclamation Underground Space Development Tropical Soil Engineering Digital Spatial Data Acquisition and Analysis Maritime Logistics
Construction Technology and Management
Environmental Engineering
Water Resources Transportation
Geotechnical Engineering
Surveying
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Maritime Studies
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Civil Engineering Research
The research interests of all faculty members are found in one of these areas tabulated above. Each member, either individually or collectively as part of a group of interested members, is able to explore and conduct research within these interest groups. In many research activities conducted in the School, collaborations with overseas Universities and organizations are not uncommon. In this Research Bulletin, a collaborative research programme with Hehoi University spearheaded by the Maritime Research Centre (MRC) is reported. The two projects conducted under this programme are: (1) Flow structures and mixing processes in vegetated flows; and (2) Secondary flow structure and transverse dispersion in compound channels of various geometries.
quality. Therefore, studies of hydrodynamics of vegetated flows are of fundamental relevance to both hydraulic engineering and river ecology.
submerged vegetated flow
Experimental investigation of flow structures and mixing processes in vegetated flows

Aquatic vegetation (Figure 1) strongly affects river and coastal hydrodynamics. Vegetation as an integrated component of a river channel generally increases flow resistance, thus reducing efficiency in delivering flood. However, the understanding of vegetation effect on river eco-systems is changing in recent years. The conventional flood control ideology has gradually evolved into a philosophy of flood management. The functioning of vegetation is not only limited to stabilization of stream banks, but also providing habitat for other aquatic organism and performing an essential role in nutrient cycling and water
non-submerged vegetated flow Figure 1. Two examples of vegetated flows
IN FOCUS
Vegetated flow for the submerged case is characterized by a strong shear layer that develops at the top of the canopy due to the vertical discontinuity of the drag. The shear layer enhances the flow turbulence significantly, and coherent vortices of canopy-scale are thus generated. These coherent vortices dynamically dominate the vertical turbulent exchange and they play an important role in the fate and transport of sediment, nutrients, contaminants, dissolved oxygen, and fauna in aquatic systems. This research project conducted by MRC is to acquire detailed experimental information of the modeled vegetated flows, including turbulence characteristics and mean flow structures. The experiments are conducted in a 14 m long, 30 cm wide and 60 cm deep tilting flume at the Hydraulics Laboratory. Three kinds of cylindrical PVC sticks are used to model rigid vegetations. Velocity measurements are conducted using a two dimensional Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system, as shown in Figure 2(a). The advantage of PIV is that velocities can be determined simultaneously in a flow field without disturbing the flow. Image sequences are recorded using a CCD camera to capture the seeding particles illuminated by a laser sheet in the vertical streamwise plane, as shown in Figure 2(b). A pair of images of illuminated seeding particles is taken at a frequency of 15 Hz, as shown in Figure 3. The images are stored in a PC disk for postprocessing using a PIV analysis software (DaVis 6.2, LaVision). The instantaneous velocities in an image plane
are obtained by a cross correlation method from a pair of images. The standard FFT method is used for the calculation. Time-mean velocities, turbulence characteristics can be thus calculated using the instantaneous velocity sequence of 300 frames. Figure 3 shows an example of the mean velocity vectors.
(a)
Figure 3. Image of seeding particles illuminated by the laser sheet and the computed velocity vector.
Through this study, a better understanding of the mechanisms and features of the shear layer and coherent structure at the top of canopy can be obtained. It also facilitates finding the quantitative relationship between flow structures and vegetation configurations, such as the vegetation size, vegetation density and arrangement pattern. More importantly, it helps to examine the physical process of mixing in the shear layer and to assess the role of aquatic vegetation in controlling sediment and pollutant fate.
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2006
Secondary flow Structure and transverse dispersion in compound channels of various geometries
(b)
Many rivers consist of a main channel with adjacent floodplains, as shown in Figure. 4. In such two-stage rivers, the flow is within the main channel for the majority of the time. During flood events, however, the flow spills over into the floodplains. Since flood control is the focus of much engineering work, the knowledge of the hydrodynamic behavior of compound channel flow has important applications in river management. For example, a good estimation of the water level for a given flood event is based on the correct prediction of the conveyance capacity, velocity distribution, and boundary shear stress distribution. Moreover, the knowledge is also required in engineering applications related to bank protection, sediment transport and scour analysis.
Figure 2 (a) Typical sketch of the experimental setup; and (b) Experiment setup
Figure 4. Sketch of a typical compound open channel
The variation in flow depth and roughness height across the channel leads to strong interactions and exchange processes between main channel and floodplains. Therefore, compound channel flows differ fundamentally from simple open channel flows. Turbulent structure in a compound channel is characterized by a large shear layer generated by the difference of velocity between the two flow components in the main channel and the floodplain. In the high shear-layer region, not only vortices with vertical axis exist, but also vortices with longitudinal axis develop. The latter vortices are also called secondary flows since they are imposed on and continue downstream with the primary flow. These vortices are responsible for the transfer of high momentum from the main channel to the floodplain. Many experimental investigations have been carried out to examine the distributions of mean velocity in compound channel flows. However, an accurate measurement of the secondary velocity components in open-channel flows is very difficult, because their order of magnitude is only up to 5% of the primary mean velocity. The mechanism of the interaction between the main channel and the floodplain flows are not well understood. Tominaga and Nezu in 1991 conducted a detailed measurement of the three-dimensional turbulence structures in compound open channel flows. From their research, it has been found that the secondary flows play an import role in the momentum exchange and thus the primary velocity distribution. The case observed by them was restricted to the compound channel with a vertical connection between the main channel and flood plains. However, some relevant studies also demonstrate that the features of secondary flows are strongly affected by the geometry of the channel cross section. Secondary flows may have different structures for different geometries, and thus the momentum exchange and mean velocity distribution also vary. A series of experiments is conducted in an 18 m long, 1.6 m wide and 60 cm deep tilting flume at the Hydraulics Laboratory. Six kinds of connections between the main channel and the floodplain are designed for the experiments.
They include 30, 45, 60, 90 slopes with respect to horizontal plane, and also a concave and a convex slope. The height difference of these slopes is 15cm. Figure 5 shows two examples of the compound channels. From these experiments, detailed flow data in compound channels of various geometries under different flow conditions are obtained, and thus the particular turbulence structures related to different geometries can be clarified. It further helps to evaluate the effects of secondary flows on transverse exchange of momentum and mixing process, which are of vital importance in hydraulic engineering and river ecology.
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(a)
(b) Figure 5. Flume of compound channel with the connection of (a) 90 slope and (b) 45slope.
IN FOCUS
Research Centres
he main events hosted by the Schools research centres during the period from July 2004 to June 2005 are summarised below.
Special course on Anaerobic Processes in Environmental Applications was conducted by Prof Lee Tu-Chung on 28 July, 2 & 4 August 2005. External Short on Introduction to Land Contamination and Remediation was conducted by Ast/Prof Lim Teik Thye in June 20. The NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment, entitled Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, was held in NTU on 31 May and 1 June 2005. The Symposium showcased research conducted under Singapore Stanford Partnership (SSP), Clean Water Programme (CWP), EERC and Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering (IESE), as well as research conducted by NTUs affiliates and international partners, including Stanford University, National Taiwan University and The University of Hong Kong. Topics covered included use of Singapores reclaimed lands as recharge and recovery aquifers, water reclamation, water quality monitoring, water resources management, membrane technologies, solid waste management, advanced treatment technologies and environmental biotechnologies. A delegation from the University of Warwick led by Dr Anthony Price (Associate Dean, School of Engineering) visited CEE (PTRC & EERC) on 25 May 05. A delegation from Arizona State University led by its President Michael M Crow visited NTU on 8 Jun 05 and was briefed on activities in EERC. A delegation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology led by its President Prof Susan Hockfield visited NTU on 30 Jun 05 and was briefed on activities in EERC.05
Centre for Advanced Construction Studies (CACS)

A course on Fire Engineering Design of Steel and Composite Structures was conducted A/P Tan Kang Hai, Prof Ian Burgess from the University of Sheffield from 22 to 24 July 2004. A course on Some Pointers for Better Contracting of Construction Projects was conducted by Adj Prof Wong Yui Cheong from 17 to 18 September 2004. A seminar on Common Mistakes in Steelwork Design conducted by A/P Chiew Sing Ping was held on 30 October 2004. A/P David Chew and Ast/P Charles Cheah paid a visit to five top-ranked Chinese universities: Tsinghua University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Tianjin University, Nankai University and Southeast University in December 2004.
Centre for Transportation Studies (CTS)

A course on Urban Traffic Management and Control was conducted by Prof Henry Fan, A/P Lum Kit Meng, A/P Tan Yan Weng and A/P Wong Yiik Diew on 12 to 16 July 2004 for transport professionals from Singapore. A course on Traffic Impact Assessment was conducted by A/P Tan Yan Weng from 14 to 17 September 2004 for transport professionals from Singapore. The course on Urban Transport Planning and Design organised under the Singapore-Republic of Korea Third Country Training Programme was conducted by Prof Henry Fan, A/P Tan Yan Weng and A/P Wong Yiik Diew from 1 to 5 November 2004. This course was attended by 15 participants from 9 countries. A second run of this course was held on 6 to 10 June 2005 and was attended by 20 participants from 9 countries. The course on Urban Transport Planning and Design organised under the Singapore Technical Co-operation Programme was conducted by Prof Henry Fan, A/P Lum Kit Meng, A/P Tan Yan Weng and A/P Wong Yiik Diew from 22 November to 3 December 2004. This course was attended by 20 participants from 16 countries.
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2006
Geotechnical Research Centre (GRC)

A seminar on Liquefaction and Displacement of Earth Structures Induced by Earthquake & Introduction to the Drafted International Standard: ISO23469, Seismic Actions for Designing Geotechnical Works was presented by Dr Liu Hanlong from Hohai University, China on ?? A seminar on New soil improvement techniques was presented by Dr Liu Hanlong from Hohai University, China on >?? A seminar on In Situ Soil Testing: From Mechanics to Interpretation was presented by Prof Hai-Sui Yu from University of Nottingham on?? A seminar on Fibre Optics Inclinometer Instrumentation and Reading for Soil Measurements was presented by Mr Philip Ho and Mr Poh Kong Beng from Singapore (name) ?? on ??
Environmental Engineering Research Centre (EERC)

Public Seminar on Aerobic Granulation: An Innovative Biotechnology for Wastewater Treatment was conducted by Prof Tay Joo Hwa on 25 May 2005.
A seminar on Is Soil/Ground and Engineering Material or an Entity? Or should a Geotechnical Specialist be a Doctor or and Engineer? Was presented by Prof Madhira R Madhav, Prof Emeritus from JNT University, Hyderabad, India on ??
A seminar on Carving Crazy Horse: Art and Engineering of Blasting Massive Rock Monuments was presented by Prof Charles Dowding, Northwestern University, USA on 23 March 2004. A seminar on Construction Vibrations was presented by Prof Charles Dowding, Northwestern University, USA; Prof Pan Tso-Chien, PTRC, NTU; and A/P Leong Eng Choon, CEE, NTU from 2526 March 2004. A presentation was made to Mr Larry Lynn, Independent Consultant & Former DARPA Director via Temasek Laboratories at NTU on 16 June 2004. A seminar on Advances in Geophysics and New Applications in Geotechnical Engineering was presented by Prof Michael Asten, Monash University, Australia on 13 July 2004. A short course on Geophysical Methods for Site Characterisation was presented by Prof Michael Asten, Monash University, Australia; Dr Wang Hou, Director, Ryobi Geotechniques Pte Ltd and A/P Leong Eng Choon, CEE, NTU on 16 July 2004. A presentation was made to Temasek Society, MINDEF via Temasek Laboratories at NTU on 27 August 2004. A seminar on Research on Protective Technologies in Australia and the RNSA Collaboration was presented by A/P Priyan Mendis, Reader on Civil Engineering, University of Melbourne on 1 September 2004. The IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards 2004 was won by a PTRC and DSTAs research project on the development of the underground ammunition storage space. The award was received by Prof Pan Tso-Chien, Director of PTRC and Mr Ong Yew Hing, Deputy Director for Defence Construction of DSTA at the IES 38th Annual Dinner & Dance held on 5 November 2004 at the Ritz Carlton. A short course entitled Blast Effects Design and Analysis of Structural and Mechanical Systems was conducted by Mr John Crawford and Dr Shangrui Lan from Karagozian & Case, USA on 6-8 December 2004. A seminar on Earthquake Response Control using Tuned Liquid Dampers was presented by Prof Pradipta Banerji, Dean for Alumni & International Relations and Professor in Structural Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay on 12 January 2005. A seminar on Damage Detection in Plate Structures using Ultrasonic Guided Waves was presented by Prof Pradipta Banerji, Dean for Alumni & International Relations and Professor in Structural Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay on 13 January 2005. A seminar on The Mathematics of Natural Catastrophe was presented by Dr Gordon Woo, Catastrophe Risk Analyst from Risk Management Solutions, Inc, UK on 14 January 2005.
Maritime Research Centre (MRC)

A. Activities Industrial Visits MRC visited the following companies to explore possible R & D projects: 1. 2. OOCL, Chulia Street Prosper Marine
Seminar The second Joint NUS-NTU-MPA Maritime Industry Seminar organized by MRC was held on 28 July 2005 at NTU.
R & D Projects MPA-NTU JOINT PROJECTS

2006
Approved projects No new approved project Projects Submitted For Consideration 1. Developing A Maritime Piracy Detection System Using Microwave Radar Sensor Saman S Abeysekera and Tan Hock Lye (EEE)
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Support to Post-graduate students 1. Supports 8 visiting students on short term attachment (1- Lu Sheng-Qi, 2- Fang Shi-Long, 3-Liu Jianmin, 4- Yan Jing, 5 Xiao Yang , 6- Liu Tao; 7 Ding Bin; 8- Nguyen Thi LanTruc )
Support to Undergraduate programmes MPAs grant (MIAP) Processing application for MIAP IA attachment Support to Current NTU staff and Alumni MPAs grant (MIAS) Working with industry on potential collaboration
Protective Technology Research Centre (PTRC)

A seminar on Analytical Methods Needed for Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures Exposed to Nearby Blast Loads was presented by Mr John Crawford, PE, the President of Karagozian & Case, and Dr Shengrui Lan, a Principal Engineer in Karagozian & Case, Burbank, California, USA on 4 February 2004.
IN FOCUS
A focus seminar on The Great Banda Aceh Earthquake & Tsunami on 26 December 2004 Vulnerability of Buildings and Infrastructure was presented by Prof Pan Tso-Chien, A/P Li Bing, A/P Lu Yong, Ast/P Au Chi Kit, MAE during the CoE Tech Week. A seminar on Importance of Maintenance Technologies for Concrete Structures was presented by Prof Taketo Uomoto, Director and Professor, International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo on 29 March 2005. A seminar on Use of GIS in Disaster Mitigation was presented by Prof Kimiro Meguro, International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo on 29 March 2005. A seminar on Tsunamis, Disasters and Defense Works was presented by Prof Nobuo Shuto, An International Authority in Tsunamis and Coastal Engineering on 3 May 2005.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the PTRC and the International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS), Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), University of Tokyo at CEE/NTU on 29 March 2005 to collaborate in the area of Research, Education and Training. Director of PTRC, Prof Pan Tso-Chien, was interviewed by the Channel News Asia on 7 April 2005, The New Paper on 13 April 2005 and The Straits Times on 20 April 2005 for (i) his inputs and views on the development of the regional tsunami warning system and how PTRC/CEE/NTU can contribute towards this development, (ii) PTRC/CEE/NTUs research capabilities in earthquake engineering and (iii) PTRC/CEE/NTUs likely contributions to the national centre for earthquake engineering research which will be established within a year as announced by DPM.
Commendations
he School takes pride in the outstanding research achievements of the following staff members:
2003. The recipients received this prestigious award at the World Water and Environmental Resources Congress held in May 2005 in Anchorage, Alaska. The team of CEE: A/P Edmond Yat-Man Lo, A/P Volodymyr Ivanov, A/P Shuy Eng Ban , A/P Karina Yew-Hoong Gin, P/O Saurav Kumar, P/O Kong-Chue Wong, P/O Woon-Kang Yee, P/O Yuehua Chen, altogether with the teams of PUB and EnviroPro Ltd. were given The Innovator Award by The Enterprise Challenge (TEC), Prime Ministers Office to recognize their innovativeness and enterprising spirit in TEC project Pilot Project on the Application of Enhanced Engineered Wetland Technology for the Removal of Nutrients from Stormwater at Kranji Reservoir.
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2006
Two of our faculty members, Assoc Prof Cheng Nian Sheng and Ast/Professor Lloyd Chua Hock Chye, together with Professors B Mutlu Sumer and Jorgen Fredsoe from the Technical University of Denmark, have been selected by the Environmental and Water Resources Institute as the recipient of the 2005 Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize. The Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize was instituted in 1939. It is given to the author(s) of a paper dealing with a problem of flowing water, either in theory or practice, which is judged to be of superior merit. It is an annual award and the winners are selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The 2005 award-winning paper entitled Influence of Turbulence on Bed Load Sediment Transport by Sumer BM, Chua LHC, Cheng NS and Fresoe J, was published in the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, in August
Research Projects and Activities
list of recently approved research projects is summarised below. Readers are welcome to email the respective investigators for more information regarding their work.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR Wong Fook-Sin (IESE) (wongfs@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg) Ren Jizhong Hassan Mahmud Chiew Sing Ping (cspchiew@ntu.edu.sg) Lie Seng Tjhen (cstlie@ntu.edu.sg) Lee Chi King (ccklee@ntu.edu.sg) Chu Jian (cjchu@ntu.edu.sg) Lim Teik Thye (cttlim@ntu.edu.sg) Chui Peng Cheong (cpcchui@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg) Leslie Loke (IESE) Toh Ah Cheong (MPA) Pan Tso Chien (cpan@ntu.edu.sg)
PROJECT TITLES Advanced Membrane Technology Centre (AMTC) - Infrastructural Funding. (NTU-IESE-AMTC Collaboration Project)
Strength of overlapped rectangular hollow section K-joints subject to chord face failure. (NTU-CIDECT collaboration with Prof Jaap Wardenier, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands) Conversion of metal sludge into construction materials. (NEA-NTU collaboration Project) Ballast Water Treatment System. (MPA-TEC collaboration Project)
2006
Ministry of Home Affairs-NTU Joint Collaboration Project. A Case Study of Integrated Petroleum Service Station.(Ministry of Home Affairs-PTRC, NTU collaboration Project) A Case Study on Collapse of a Smaller RC Structure (Ministry of Home Affairs-PTRC, NTU collaboration Project) Biological Treatment of Municipal and High-Strength Wastewaters (Glow Tec Bio Pte Ltd collaboration Project) Greener and cheaper way to treat wastewater EERC (PUB-NTU collaboration Project)
Pan Tso Chien (cpan@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg) Stephen Tay (ctltay@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg) Wah Yuen Long Show Kuan Yeow (ckyshow@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Tiong Lee (ctltay@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo Hwa (ctltay@ntu.edu.sg) Wah Yuen Long Wong Fook Sin (wongfs@ntu.edu.sg) Chua Hwee Chua AG Fane (AGFane@ntu.edu.sg) Darren Sun Delai (ddsun@ntu.edu.sg) Tor Yam Khoon (cyktor@ntu.edu.sg) Zhao Jian (cjzhao@ntu.edu.sg) Zhao Yingxin (PM-Protective Structures Design Centre) Wang Jing Yuan (cjywang@ntu.edu.sg)
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Greener and cheaper way to treat wastewater-IESE (PUB-NTU-IESE collaboration Project)
Nanomaterials and Membrane Research (PUB-NTU collaboration Project) Development of 3D-GIS (geographical information system) for subsurface infrastructure archiving, managing, planning and design. (Mindef-NTU-DSTA collaboration Project) Feasibility of Establishing the Tuas/Jurong Industrial Estate as a Model Eco Industrial Park (EIP) through Integrated Waste Minimization. (NEA-NTU & JTC collaboration Project) Dynamic Response of Piles and Pile Shafts (Mindef-NTU-DSTA collaboration Project) Use of Recycled Rubber Tyres in Civil Engineering Applications (NTU-NEA collaboration Project) The Use of Flow Cytometry for Pathogen Detection (Project Spring). - EERC
Li Bing (CBli@ntu.edu.sg) Teh Cee Ing (cciteh@ntu.edu.sg) Ting Seng Kiong (cskting@ntu.edu.sg) Wong Sook Fun (EERC) (CSFWong@ntu.edu.sg) Karina Gin Yew Hoong (cyhgin@ntu.edu.sg)
IN FOCUS
PROJECT TITLES Seed Funding for Strategic Research at Research Technoloplaza (research manpower). - EERC Conversion of Food Waste into Biogas and Fertilizer. Application of Real Options in Infrastructurre Projects. (Ct&Cm) Augmented Reality (AR) Enhanced Rescue and Positioning Syatem for Indoor Environment Bacterial Coaggregation: Drivers, Players and Implications for Biological Wastewater Treatment. (En&Wr)
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR Lawrence Koe (ccckoe@ntu.edu.sg) Wang Jing-Yuan (cjywang@ntu.edu.sg) Charles Cheah Yuen Jen (cyjcheah@ntu.edu.sg) Chen Po-Han (cphchen@ntu.edu.sg) Hsu Wen Jing (SCE) Henry Duh Been Lirn (MPE) Stephen Tay Tiong Lee (ctltay@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg)
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CONSTRUCTION
Evaluation of Guarantee as a Put Option using Monte Carlo Simulation The Case of the Second Link
Liu Jicai (PG04083059@ntu.edu.sg) Cheah Yuen Jen Charles (cyjcheah@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
An infrastructure project structured under the Build-OperateTransfer (BOT) arrangement can be a risky proposition. To alleviate the concern of the private sector and attract longterm investors participation in financing the project, host governments often grant various forms of support. However, as has been reported widely, some governments do not explicitly account for the contingent liabilities and implications associated with these support packages (Mody and Patro, 1995). Despite their prevalence, the cost of these financial incentives to governments and their value to private recipients are not well understood (Mason and Baldwin, 1988).
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carriageway, the new bridge has a capacity of 200,000 vehicles a day (or 73 million vehicles per year), which is four times the load of the old causeway. UEM, a leading Malaysian construction group, was successful in securing the mandate from the Malaysian government and setting up a special purpose vehicle (which was named as LINK) to implement this project. In July 1993, a concession agreement was signed between the Malaysian federal government and UEM. UEM then seconded to LINK all rights, liabilities and obligations under the agreement to receive tolls in return for designing, constructing, operating and maintaining the Malaysian side of the second crossing (approximately 1.7 km) and the expressways that connect to other parts of the neighborhood. The Singapore government will be responsible for constructing the Singapore side of the crossing (approximately 0.3 km).
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The importance of balancing risk and value has been highlighted in Cheah (2004). Governmental support such as subsidies and guarantees would add direct value to the transaction. Besides, value can also be created by structuring operating options and flexibilities during the course of design and execution of a project. Without proper evaluation of these elements, the matching of risk and value cannot proceed in a guided manner. The techniques of evaluation may range from a simple ruleof-thumb learnt from past experience, to sophisticated methodologies, such as Monte Carlo simulation and real option analysis. The latter will be illustrated here in a case study of the Malaysia-Singapore Second Crossing. All these methods are commonly complemented by sensitivity and scenario analyses in order to examine the variations of the outcome, subject to changes in the initial inputs.
Valuation of guarantee as a put option

The guarantee that the Malaysian government provided for the toll revenue is effectively a form of put options written to the sponsor of the project. Government guarantees are sometimes granted without much consideration of their real worth. In retrospect, it would be meaningful to assess the potential value of the guarantee granted in a project of such nature, which could be taken into consideration during the negotiation stage. Effectively, the guarantee comes from the fact that if the toll revenue from actual traffic volume (CFia) in each year i reaches the level that has been projected (CFip) in the pro forma cash flow model, the government would not have to pay any subsidy. Otherwise, the government would have to make up for the shortfall in revenue, just like it actually did by paying the sponsor RM20 million in 1999. For the purpose of evaluating this form of guarantees, the governments obligation to pay in each year (SFi) would depend on the relative value between CFia and CFip, as shown in Figure 1. Therefore, the total subsidy (SD) that the government would provide over the entire concession period can be estimated by using the following equation: (1) Due to the uncertainties in initial traffic volume and growth rate, the value of SD is not deterministic but instead follows a certain distribution. This distribution can be obtained by simulating cash flows based on the distributions of the initial
Brief background of the Malaysia-Singapore Second Crossing

Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) is bordered on the south by Singapore, which has a close relationship in foreign trade with Malaysia. For more than 70 years, a causeway that was built in the 1920s served as the only physical connection between the two countries. With fast economic growth in the past two decades, the scale of transportation between the two countries increased quickly up to 55,000 vehicles use the causeway daily and severe congestion is observed even today. In the early 1990s, the government of Singapore and Malaysia recognized the need for a second connection. A new bridge was then proposed to improve land-based transportation service and serve as the second crossing for inter-country travelers. With its spacious three-lane dual
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Table 1. Sensitivity of total subsidy (in RM millions) to standard deviations of initial traffic volume and growth rate
Standard Deviation of Growth Rate 3% 6% 28.8 54.0 77.0 104.8 129.2 169.3 9% 29.2 60.8 92.4 121.1 162.6 180.1 12% 31.5 66.5 95.1 123.1 168.4 191.8
Standard Deviation of Traffic Volume
Figure 1. Evaluation model for revenue shortfall
0.55 1.10 1.65 2.20 2.75 3.30
26.7 46.6 60.2 85.6 112.2 140.1
Figure 2. Frequency distribution chart of total subsidy SD
Conclusions
In all forms of public-private partnerships, project participants should take a holistic view of risk and value in process of negotiation. Certain forms of governmental support, such as guarantees and subsidies, can be interpreted as options, since the obligations are triggered when some pre-specified conditions are met. The value of these options has to be properly accounted for, so as to strike a better balance between risk and benefit. The real option approach is a promising tool to value some of these options. Although there are many ways of modeling real options, the approach presented in this paper makes use of Monte Carlo simulation of a cash flow model. In the case of the Malaysia-Singapore Second Crossing, it is demonstrated that the guarantee granted, which ultimately resulted in subsidy payments, could indeed be substantial.
traffic volume and growth rate. During each trial, values of the initial traffic volume and growth rate are sampled and used to derive the gross revenue in each period. Since the cash flow model is constructed in a spreadsheet environment, the conditions set out in Figure 1 can be easily incorporated using logical functions in the relevant cells and hence the value of SFi for each period can be derived accordingly. Finally, the cell that contains Equation (1) represents the forecast cell for the simulation. Following the above procedure, the distribution of SD can be derived, which is shown in Figure 2. With a median value of RM54 million, it is noted that the value of the guarantee is quite significant (relative to the basic NPV value of RM326.6 million). This supports the argument that a proper evaluation of guarantees can be important.
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References Sensitivity analysis of option values

In practice, it is always prudent to examine how sensitive the estimated option values are to the various input parameters. This is particularly important in a negotiation context. Table 1 shows the results of sensitivity analyses of SD subject to variations in the standard deviations of initial traffic volume and growth rate. From Table 1, it can be seen that the value of SD is more sensitive to the standard deviation of the initial traffic volume assumed. It should be noted that the standard deviations of these two variables determine the volatility of the project cash flows, which is a key determinant of the value of the option evaluated. The findings essentially underline the differences in risks that confront the government and the project sponsor. [1] Cheah, C.Y.J. (2004) Public-Private Partnerships in Infrastructure Development: On Value, Risk and Negotiation. CIB W107 Globalization and Construction Symposium, November 17-19, Bangkok, Thailand. [2] Mason, S.P. and Baldwin, C.Y. (1988) Evaluation of Government Subsidies to Large-scale Energy Projects. Advances in Futures and Options Research, 3, 169-181. [3] Mody, A. and Patro, D. (1995) Methods of Loan Guarantee Valuation and Accounting. CSF Discussion Paper No. 116, World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Creating and Sustaining Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Construction Enterprises in China
Yan Shigang (pg02789992@ntu.edu.sg) Chew Ah Seng David (caschew@ntu.edu.sg) Cheah Yuen Jen Charles (cyjcheah@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
In the Chinese construction industry, construction SMEs have enjoyed rapid development since the late 1990s with progressive adoption of reforms and opening-up policies. The SMEs have grown to be an important force in promoting the development of the Chinese construction industry. As the SMEs assume a greater role in the Chinese construction industry, this research will examine the theories concerning their development. The competitive environment pertaining to construction SMEs will be analyzed through questionnaire surveys and interviews with founders, managers and engineers of construction and related enterprises. Finally, overall competitive strategies for Chinese construction SMEs will be discussed and a conceptual model is postulated to create and sustain their competitiveness in China.
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Table 1. The strengths and weaknesses of SMEs in Chinese construction industry Rank 1 2 3 4 5 Strengths Flexible and marketdriven Effective decisionmaking Flexible talent mechanism Low running expense and cost Efficient company structure Weaknesses Limited funds Low level of employees education Low competitiveness in obtaining large projects Difficult to access financing from banks Lack of risk management
Table 2. The opportunities and threats of SMEs in Chinese construction industry Rank 1 Opportunities Improvement in market mechanisms Policies and regulations to support SMEs Threats Intense competition among domestic enterprises Lack of differentiation in production and service
SWOT analysis of Chinese construction SMEs

12 SWOT analysis is concerned with the analysis of an organizations internal and external environment with the aim of identifying internal strengths in order to take advantage of its external opportunities and avoid external threats (Langford and Male, 2001). In consideration of the variety of Chinese construction SMEs with regard to size and ability to attain national resources, the authors contend that the SWOT analysis concept could be used to investigate Chinese construction SMEs market position. Although Chinese construction SMEs are not identical, they share many things in common such as organizational culture, ongoing enterprise reform, and the need to face competition from domestic and foreign contractors. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing Chinese construction SMEs are pilot-studied using a survey of 15 construction enterprises based in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong province and Hebei province. Among the 15 construction enterprises, there were six large stateowned enterprise (SOE) contractors, seven SME contractors, and two SME design institutes. The respondents consisted of consultants, designers, project managers and senior managers. Interviews were also conducted with founders, managers and engineers of construction and related SMEs. The interviewing and survey results are summarized in Tables 1 and 2.
2 3
Cooperation with Uncertainty in economy foreign-funded enterprises with WTO accession A continuing construction Uncertainty in politics market boom A broadened approach in financing Entry of foreign construction firms in domestic market
4 5
its capacity to achieve its targets. Such targets would typically take full account of competition. To create and sustain the competitiveness of construction SMEs, new markets and new strategies are urgently needed. Arising from the SWOT analysis, a conceptual framework is postulated for the development strategies for Chinese construction SMEs, which comprises strategic alliances, innovation and differentiation strategies (Figure 1).
Development strategies to create and sustain competitiveness for construction SMEs

The competitiveness of a firm may be generically defined as
Figure 1. A conceptual framework for development strategies of Chinese construction SMEs
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Strategic alliance Strategic alliances refer to a form of lateral working relationship between a firm and its competitors in one or more aspects of marketing (Li, 1998). The premise of this strategy is based on resource dependence and interorganizational exchange perspectives, which hold that organizations seek to reduce environmental uncertainty by exchanging resources for mutual benefits. In order to take advantage of opportunities and cope with challenges facing the construction SMEs, strategic alliance is a promising strategy. Innovation strategy An important feature of the Chinese construction industry is the increasingly fast pace of change in product and service markets. Coupled with rapidly declining product life cycles in the information technology, there are growing competitive pressures for construction SMEs to respond quickly to the market environment. Thus the capacity for innovation is a critical factor for construction SMEs success. Innovation can be accrued to construction SMEs externally and/or internally. External innovation would entail developing new products and/or services. Internal innovation can encompass new processes, organizational structures and culture. Differentiation strategy Differentiation is concerned with creating the perception that something is seen by buyers as being unique (Male and Stock, 1991). Differentiation strategy is attractive when buyer preferences and/or requirements are diverse. Given the limited resources in terms of finances, human expertise and production process, it is appropriate for construction SMEs to adopt a differentiation strategy, either in general differentiation or focus differentiation. General differentiation is a particularly important strategy for most SMEs in a huge and rapidly growing China construction market, which is likely to remain buoyant in the foreseeable future. For those specialty construction
SMEs with few employees, focus differentiation may be the only viable strategy for their target market. Successful differentiation would allow SMEs to demand a price premium on their products, increase sales and gain clients loyalty.
Conclusion
Due to the countrys institutional changes and its accession to the WTO, Chinas construction SMEs are in a transition period. To maintain their competitiveness in the rapidly changing environment, new strategies are needed. Based on the pilot survey and interviews, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of construction SMEs have been identified. Drawing from the SWOT analysis, a conceptual framework for the development strategies for Chinese construction SMEs are postulated by the authors, which include strategic alliances, innovation and differentiation. It should be noted that the strategies suggested in this framework serve mainly as general approaches for Chinese construction SMEs. Research into the different grades of construction SMEs in China are needed in future to formulate more specific development strategies to meet their objectives.
References
[1] Langford, D. and Male, S. (2001). Strategic management in construction, Oxford: Blackwell Science. [2] Li, H.Y (1998). Market strategies and new venture performance in Chinas transition economy, Ph.D. dissertation, City University of Hong Kong. [3] Male, S. and Stock, R. (1991). Competitive advantage in construction, Butterworth- Heinemann, Stoneham, Mass.
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Problems of Overseas Ventures for Singapore Construction SMEs

Wong Yun Tau (Q040037@ntu.edu.sg) Chew Ah Seng David (caschew@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Singapore domestic construction industry has yet to achieve positive growth. The situation was further aggravated with the SARS outbreak and the threats of terrorism. For the past few years, Singapore domestic construction demand remained lukewarm at around S$11 billion per annum. On the contrary, Singapore construction companies secured more jobs in overseas markets. Total construction export value increases more than eight-fold from S$0.3 billion in 2000 to S$2.5 billion in 2004 (BCA, 2005a). However, most of the successful Singapore construction companies in overseas are Government-Linked Companies (GLCs). Although Singapore construction small and medium enterprises (SMEs) represent over 90% in number for the whole construction industry, their contribution has been disproportionately low. Little attention was focused on their problems in construction export and reasons for their failures overseas. As a result, this research was initiated to fill the literature gap.
companies have ventured into several countries in their overseas expansion program. The countries range from Southeast Asia to East Asia and even the Middle East. Based on their number of years of overseas experiences, these eight companies were subsequently grouped into two clustersamateur companies and veteran companies, as shown in Table 1, to facilitate the analysis of their overseas problems.
Table 1. Classification of Companies A to H Veteran companies A Years of overseas 15 experiences C <15* G 10 H** 16 Amateur companies B <5 D <5 E <5 F <5
* Ceased overseas operation since 1997 ** Large contractor
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Preliminary findings
Preliminary analysis has successfully identified four major problems for Singapore contractors in construction export. Table 2 shows the four most critical problems cited by the interviewees. In the following section, selected findings in each problem will be highlighted for discussion. In addition, distinctive comments in italics from interviewees would also be included to add qualitative insights into the issues being studied. Each comment is attributed to the interviewee identified with company indicated in brackets.
Table 2. Four critical problems for Singapore contractors in overseas ventures Critical Problems Veteran companies Amateur companies Total A C G H B D E F 7 6
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Research motivation and objective

Venturing overseas is not new to Singapore construction firms. Several companies have been active abroad for some decades. However, few of the companies that have successfully established their early presence overseas are able to sustain this momentum. Some of them have actually been downsized or divested. Neither their pitfalls nor success factors in overseas ventures were captured in theory and practice. Their mistakes keep recurring, with learning experiences remaining confidential and not shared industrywide. Hence, this creates the main impetus and motivation to carry out this research, which aims to identify the problems of Singapore contractors in overseas ventures (Wong et al, 2005). Drawing from this research, it is envisaged that an essential framework could be formulated to assist Singapore contractors to succeed overseas.
Limited size and resources Difficulty with external stakeholders Lack of government incentives Lack of support from Singapore companies
Research methodology
In order to gain an in-depth understanding of Singapore contractors performance overseas, this research has adopted the case-study approach and survey questionnaire to collect qualitative and quantitative data. With the help from BCA, interviews were arranged with eight Singapore contractors, comprising seven construction SMEs and one large contractor. All the interviewees positions in this study are at least of senior managerial level and above. They are personally involved and responsible for their company overseas development and operation. Additionally, these eight
Limited size and resources As an example, amateur companies which are new to overseas ventures found the lack of financial resources as key disadvantages in meeting financing requirements
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of overseas projects. While we are technically competent for the job, yet we are financially incapable to undertake the project (F). Similarly, veteran companies main constraint to grow and expand overseas was their limited budget. Business opportunity is not an issue; what bothers us is insufficient money to finance more than one overseas project at any time (A). Difficulty with external stakeholders Both veteran and amateur companies encountered environmental problems from the external stakeholders caused by the protectionist measures in the host countries. However, that does not mean that they are not performing well in the new markets. Compared to China, India is developing at a slower pace and is further plagued with resource problems; but these are good problems which show that the country is booming and generating greater construction demands for us (A). Lack of government incentives Out of the eight interviewees, five of them thought that the Singapore government should emulate other countries in devising more attractive incentives to promote construction export. Very few of them actually found trade missions organized by government agencies to be effective and useful. We have ventured overseas well before government starts its construction export promotion and we might have better connection than BCA (A). Lack of support from other Singapore companies Compared to firms from Taiwan and Hong Kong, Singaporean firms are generally self-centered and unwilling to share. Though result-oriented, they are not united, unlike the Japanese who tend to engage their own people for any related works overseas. The Singapore developer/consultant selfdom takes the
initiative to hire Singapore contractors for works overseas. Instead, they would usually engage foreign contractors with the (mis)conception that foreign product/ services are always better. Singapore firms are simply lacking confidence in their compatriots service and product quality overseas (A).
Conclusion
The Singapore construction industry is filled with many construction SMEs who have limited financial capability to venture abroad. There is little government assistance scheme to assist them in exporting their service. This situation is further aggravated by the unwillingness of fellow Singaporean firms to support and partner each other in overseas ventures. In the light of this predicament, government agencies, such as BCA, should review their current strategy to achieve the goal of increasing the overseas market-share of Singapore contractors. This on-going research, upon completion, will culminate with a framework and suggestions to realize that objective.
References
[1] BCA, 2005a, Singapore contractors clinched $2.5billion overseas contracts in 2004 record high in 10 Years. Media Release, online publication, URL: http://www.bca.gov.sg http://www.bca.gov.sg [2] Wong, Y.T., Chew, D.A.S., and Cheah, C.Y.J., 2005, Strategic framework for Singapore contractors forming JVs in developing countries: A preliminary study. Proceeding of the First International Conference on Construction and Engineering Management, 16-19 October, 2005, Seoul, Korea, 6 p.
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Competitive Strategies and Competitive Advantages of Large Chinese Construction Enterprises

Kang Jian (PG04220485@ntu.edu.sg) Cheah Yuen Jen Charles (cyjcheah@ntu.edu.sg) Chew Ah Seng David (caschew@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The concept of competitive advantage has been widely studied in the academic field and applied to various industries in many western countries. However, practical cases and empirical findings related to the Chinese construction industry remain lacking. To help construction enterprises in China identify and structure critical sources of competitive advantage, this research aims to build a conceptual model based on the findings gathered from the case studies of 12 large Chinese construction companies. The relationships among variables within the model are subsequently verified and refined through statistical analyses of survey results, which consist of 85 valid responses. Essentially, the conceptual model combines two main streams of strategic management theories industrial organization (IO) and resource-based view (RBV) theories. According to Kale (1999)s definition, competitive advantage refers to the ability of a firm to outperform its rivals on some performance criteria, such as profitability and market share. In the model, which is shown in Figure 1, it is postulated that there are two major sources of competitive advantage: competitive strategies and imperative resources and competencies (iRCs). This article presents the findings related to competitive strategies and the analytical results of Hypothesis No. 1.
in which they thought they had an advantage over their main competitors. The results were collated using a scale of 0-6, in which 0 means none of the items was chosen, 1 implies that only one of the items was chosen, and so on. In order to determine whether a company has indeed implemented a cost leadership strategy, the results were transformed into dummy variables (0, 1). The transformation process is largely judgmental and is based on the study of the whole sample population. This is because whether a cost leadership strategy is implemented is purely a relative concept it should refer to the other companies in the industry. Here, the mean value is used for the transformation values greater than the mean would be assigned as 1, while values less than the mean are assigned as 0. It should be mentioned that due to the variability of the design format of each survey question, the measurement process also varies. Table 1 shows the mean, standard deviation and value scale of some of the variables.
Table 1. Measurement and descriptive statistics of selected research variables Research Variables Mean Std. Deviation 1.418 1.323 1.272 Scale 1-5 1-5 1-5 0-1 0-1 0-1 0-1 0-1
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Performance (Dependent Variables) Sales growth 3.15 Profit growth 2.46 Overall performance 2.81
Competitive Strategies (Independent Variables) Cost Leadership .46 .484 Differentiation .56 .499 Market/Product .48 .503 Geography .47 .502 Functional/vertical Integration .54 .501
Figure 1. Components of competitive advantage and related hypotheses
Selected analytical results

A regression analysis is conducted to test the relationship between competitive advantage and competitive strategies and the results are presented in Table 2. Competitive advantage, which serves as the dependent variable, is represented by the growth rates of sales and net profit. The measure of overall performance is given by the average of sales and net profit growth rates. Although the value of adjusted R2 seem to be low, the F-statistics are indeed significant, indicating that the independent variables do explain the variation of the dependent variable. Specifically, it indicates that differentiation and market/product diversification can contribute to the development of competitive advantage at a 5% level of statistical significance.
Measurement of variables
The variables examined in the questionnaire are grouped into three categories: performance, competitive strategies and iRC variables. The questions designed to test each variable are developed based on the interview results and case findings. A survey question, which is designed to examine the issue of cost leadership, is presented here as an illustration. In that question, cost leadership was measured by: (1) cost of material and equipment procurement; (2) manpower cost; (3) cost control during the construction process; (4) administrative cost; (5) subcontracting cost. The respondents were asked to choose one or more items or nominate areas
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Table 2. Results of regression analysis for Hypothesis No. 1 Variables Cost Leadership Differentiation Geographical Diversification Market/Product Diversification Functional/ Vertical Integration Adjusted R2 F-Value
*
Sales Growth Profit Growth Overall Performance (Model 1a) (Model 1b) (Model 1c) .149 .346** .129 .227** .019 .205 5.331***
***
.013 .384** .159 .217** .044 .227 5.703***
.062 .358** .130 .229** .004 .212 5.166***
The results do not support the notion that geographical diversification could influence performance. One possible factor is the protectionist policies of local and regional government in China. In order to protect local benefits, secure short-term profits and lighten the pressure of local employment and fiscal problems, many local government and authorities have chosen to lower the entry barriers to their local construction companies. This would aggravate the level of competition within the local industry. At the same time, the local government might elevate the entry barriers to companies from other regions, thus making it difficult for them to secure new projects in the region. The results also do not support the notion that vertical integration could influence performance. This means that vertical integration may not be a viable strategy for large construction companies in China. One possible explanation is that although vertical integration could reduce operational risk and transaction costs (such as backward integration into the manufacturing of equipment and materials and forward integration into real estate development), it cannot utilize resources and competencies developed in the existing construction business to venture into other similar projects. For example, a few categories of iRCs Guanxi resource with original clients, project management competencies and technological and innovative capabilities, have limited expansion value into the upstream and downstream businesses. Finally, this article only presents one of the regression models that verifies the relationships between competitive advantage and competitive strategies. There are also other models developed to examine the relationships between (1) competitive advantage and iRC variables; (2) competitive strategies and iRC variables. These models are also tested and interpreted in conjunction with established strategic management theories.
P0.1;
**
P0.05;
P0.01
Discussion of results
As Porter (1980, 1985) suggested, a firm cannot pursue cost leadership and differentiation at the same time, for it would face the risk of being stuck in the middle. The research results confirm this view for the Chinese construction context (since the independent variables differentiation strategy and cost leadership are not concurrently significant). The reason that the differentiation strategy, instead of cost leadership, has a stronger relationship with performance is due to the excessive competition that exists in the Chinese construction industry. Many under-performing companies still remain in the industry because of high exit barriers. These companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises within the under-performing group, often lower their bidding price to acquire new projects. In some of the projects, the price could even be lower than the project cost in order to prolong their survival in the industry. On the contrary, large companies have more resources and competencies to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Therefore, they can acquire more projects and profits by adopting a differentiation strategy instead of a cost leadership strategy. Other than differentiation, the findings in Table 2 also confirm that market/product diversification can contribute to strong performance. A market/product diversification strategy requires a company to compete in different types of projects, such as road, tunnel, bridge, subway, airport, railway, and dam, etc. Diversification can often reduce risks, which is faced by a focus strategy that targets only one type of market segments. Furthermore, market/product diversification fully utilizes the experiences, resources (such as manpower, equipment) and competencies (such as project management competencies) developed in one type of projects and synergize these resources and competencies with applications to other types of projects.
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References
[1] Kale, S (1999) Competitive advantage in the construction industry: firm specific resources and strategy, Ph.D. Thesis, Illinois Institute of Technology. [2] Porter, M E (1980) Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. New York: Free Press. [3] Porter, M E (1985) Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Free Press.
Research Findings on International Strategic Management of Chinese Construction Firms

Liu Guozhi (gzliu@pmail.ntu.edu.sg) Chew Ah Seng David (caschew@ntu.edu.sg) Cheah Yuen Jen Charles (cyjcheah@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Chinese construction firms (CCFs) have made significant achievements in international construction in recent years. 49 CCFs were included in the 2005s Top 225 International Contractors based on their international revenues in 2004. Up to 2004, CCFs had completed total international turnovers of US$114.03 billion and realized total international contract values of US$156.29 billion. For the first eight months of 2005, CCFs contracted and transacted values for international construction are US$15.92 billion and US$11.75 billion respectively (Ministry of Commerce, China, 2005). Their international market share in Asia was 60 percent of the total in 2003, against 23 percent in Africa, 10 percent in Europe, and 7 percent for the rest of the regions (China International Contractors Association, 2004).
Lack of experienced and versatile personnel for international business management.
Summary of research findings

A survey was conducted to validate a number of hypotheses regarding the strategic issues for CCFs international strategic management. The survey was carried out in two rounds, with 92 qualified answers received for the first round and 59 qualified answers received for the second round. A total of 16 senior managers from different CCFs were also interviewed to verify these hypotheses. The findings are briefly summarized as follows: Integration of cost leadership and differentiation is deemed the best and ultimate generic competitive strategy for CCFs internationally. Both market entry modes and contracting modes to be adopted by CCFs should vary from market to market. Three most important measures to build CCFs core competencies are: restructuring the organization; cultivating and recruiting talents; and improving technology and management. Building relationship with banks/financial institutions and public listing are two most important channels for CCFs to enhance financing capability. Three most important factors that influence marketing are: employing sufficient information channels; using experienced marketing professionals; and top managements instruction to make detailed SWOT analysis. Merger and acquisition (M&A) among strong CCFs in different specialized trades are advantageous; M&A among construction-related firms (like material manufacturers, designers and developers) are also important. Leadership of top managers is pivotal to CCFs internationalization strategy formulation; top managers personal ability and international experience are two important aspects of leadership. Control by CCFs headquarters over foreign subsidiaries should be reduced initially to allow localization to take place; control should gradually be raised to synergize CCFs global strategy. Localization is important for CCFs internationalization, especially during the early stage of internationalization. At the maturity stage of CCFs internationalization, the top three factors for preventing business decline are: effective management to reduce operational cost; technology innovation; and multinational collaboration for economies of scale. CCFs should focus on core business at early stage of internationalization; they can gradually diversify their business at maturity stage; related business diversification is more important than non-related business diversification.
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Strengths and weaknesses construction firms
of
Chinese
18
Compared to international competitors from the advanced economies, CCFs strengths and weaknesses are now analyzed. CCFs strengths mainly lie in low costs and strong government support. Abundant natural and human resources have led to lower construction costs. Construction tools, machinery and equipment made in China are much cheaper than those made in the advanced countries. CCFs overhead could have been much lower than that of the international competitors if their organizational structures were optimized. Furthermore, a few specialized CCFs have their own proprietary technologies for certain kinds of projects. Such technologies and other innovative materials may not be superior to their international rivals; nonetheless they are attractive to most clients in the developing countries due to cost advantage over competitors from the advanced economies. Conversely, CCFs weaknesses are reflected in the following aspects: Fierce competition among a large number of equal-sized firms. Few giant conglomerate CCFs are developed. Management of CCFs is still not fully market-oriented. Over capacity and overstaffing. Idle rates of CCFs equipment and labour resources remain high. Heavy social responsibility burden. CCFs are obliged to provide social security for retired staff. Low profits and tight cash flow. Such problems undermine their ability to secure financing for large projects. Low international revenues. For example, Hochtief AGs international revenues in 2004 alone exceed that of all 49 top CCFs combined revenues. Limited technology and management know-how, especially for large and sophisticated projects.
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The Chinese governments policies and support are important to CCFs internationalization. Top four important aspects are: providing business information and consultancy services; providing financial support; overseeing CCFs restructuring and M&A; and strengthening supervision and coordination roles of industry associations and government agencies.
international competitors. Based on two rounds of questionnaire surveys and personal interviews of senior managers of CCFs, key research findings regarding the international strategic management of CCFs are summarized, which form the core of this research.
References Conclusion
The research reviewed CCFs international performance and showed that they have made significant achievements in international construction in recent years. A number of large CCFs with strong competitiveness are discussed. Strengths and weaknesses of CCFs are analyzed and compared with other [1] Department of Foreign Economic Cooperation (2005), Brief statistics of foreign economic cooperation (1991-2005), Ministry of Commerce, China. [2] China International Contractors Association (CHINCA), www.chinca.org.cn available at 18th Dec 2004.
A Simple Flow Control Tool for a Real-time Evacuation System Augmented with Virtual Reality
Chen Po-Han (cphchen@ntu.edu.sg) Feng Feng (feng0009@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
In a real-time system, especially for emergency evacuation, computation tasks or functions should be able to be finished in a reasonably short time. Users of our system are supposed to be rescue team members. When they are evacuating a large group of people, how to assign evacuees to different exits to shorten the evacuation time to a largest degree is a big challenge. With some flow control functions provided, the system should be able to provide real-time evacuee division and dispatching suggestions within a short time of computation. Existing evacuation softwares flow control algorithms are not effective enough for our system in terms of their theoretical computation complexity and actual computing speed, especially when the network is large in terms of arc and node numbers. The flow computation methods of some existing evacuation software have been reviewed. As the tasks of our system are unique from existing evacuation systems, the assumptions of our flow control computation are evaluated. The characteristics of the target buildings of our system, such as shopping malls, campus buildings, and large office buildings are analyzed. On the basis of all these observations, a fast flow control algorithm, slimmed for our VR augmented emergency evacuation system has been developed. Its application to a shopping mall has also been implemented.
division and dispatching suggestions can be given according to the layout of the building and the total number of evacuees at the location. Each group of evacuees will be led by one rescue team member to head for the designated destination, which is usually an exit door. The objective of this research is to develop a suitable algorithm for this situation.
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Inside building structures: wide doors and narrow doors

Through observations, we find that it is a typical phenomenon that all exit doors except for one or two, have widths much smaller than most of the passageways inside a modern building. They can be called Narrow Doors (ND). With reasonable transformations, the doors, whose widths are bigger than most of the passageways, can be converted to a series of ND. As an ND is the bottleneck of any evacuation route, no multiple-path finding is needed for a source-target pair. One shortest path is enough for this one-source one-target evacuation. If, additionally, the interactions between intercepting evacuation groups are not considered, our problem can be converted to a simpler transshipment problem. In fact, this interaction omission is quite reasonable. One reason is that human behaviors in emergency cant be predicted so fine, which is much likely to make the utility of a high-accuracy flow control strategy not able to justify the huge computing resource consumption. Another reason is that in addition to the evacuation groups led by the security team members guided by our system, it is supposed that there are other people evacuating by themselves present in the building, which will make high-accuracy computation result useless. Another interacting strategy may be more suitable for our case. When people, especially large groups of people, intercept with each other, and this interception invalidates the existing
Research objectives
The flow division and dispatching algorithm of our emergency evacuation system is designed for rescue team members, who are supposed to be able to find the people to evacuate. These people are unfamiliar with the building and therefore stuck in a dangerous area. After the people, or so called evacuees, are found, group
evacuation grouping and dispatching, the intercepting people can be merged into one group. After this mergence, a new one-source multiple-target calculation can be applied. We believe this mergeand-recalculation strategy is more suitable in a real emergency scene.
Then the program will give the group division and dispatch profile in a message box, and the routes each group should follow are shown in different color. The dispatching profile is also stored in an output file in .txt format for reviewing. The output is in the form of Fig.1. When the number of groups is limited to a certain number, a variation of the algorithm is applied and has been coded into our program. The input needs an additional parameter, the number of systems. The output is similar to the no limitation situation. The only difference is that the number of groups is always within the given limitation.
Solution to the one-source multi-door problem

The definition of our one-source multi-door problem is as follows: There are in total Nt evacuees at the source waiting to be evacuated. They are going to be divided into k groups. Each group has Ni evacuees (i=1, 2, 3, k). The path group i takes to an ND is Pi, and the length of Pi is Li. V is the walking speed of evacuees. Wi is the dynamic capacity of Door i, which Pi goes to. Ti is the total evacuation time of group i. Then: (1) Ti=Li/V+Ni/Wi (2)
Conclusions and future work

Our research has defined and given a reasonable solution for a
In an optimal solution, all EGs should finish evacuation at the same time, so T1=T2==Tk=X. So
2006
(a) Evacuation profile
X=Li/V+Ni/Wi Ni=(X-Li/V)*Wi Substitute Ni in (1) with Ni in (4), we get:
(3) (4)
20
(5) (6) The subset of exit doors is not selected without any limitation. A reasonable exit door subset should make X-Li/V>=0 for all doors in the subset. This makes sure that in the subset there is not a door such that the length of the shortest path to this door is too long so that even if it is assigned only 1 person, it still will need longer time for the person to reach this door than the total evacuation time of all other groups. If we allow Ni to be negative, the resulting door set is clearly not optimal. Through this mathematical description, our problem is converted into a simple transshipment problem, for which a SIMPLEX solution can be applied according to certain standard procedure [1]. In our coding of the algorithm, to avoid the high computation complexity of the SIMPLEX algorithm, another slimmed algorithm is applied and the detailed code explanation will be given in our future work on the project.
(b) Evacuation routes Figure 1. Output of the program
common emergency evacuation flow control problem. Through the testing of an example network with the coded algorithm, the solution is efficient enough in terms of computing time and accuracy level. Therefore, the algorithm can be readily transplanted onto a VR platform. This algorithm and the tools provided on its basis are supposed to be an efficient aid for evacuation rescue teams. Some parameters, such as the dynamic capacity of doors with different width and the walking speed of the people, are arbitrarily given at this stage through dialogue input. They should be under further research through some behavior literature reviewing or experiments. Human behavior under emergency environments has a large impact on the validity and utility of an evacuation flow control strategy. For a well performing real-time evacuation system, careful reviewing on this aspect is necessary.
A shopping mall case

In order to demonstrate our flow control algorithm, part of a floor of the Takashimaya building in Singapore has been converted into a network with nodes and arcs, with dynamic capacity of doors defined. A division and dispatching calculation request can be initiated at any location in the network. The relevant information to the calculation, such as the location, the number of people and the walking speed should be input to the program.
References
[1] Winston W.L. (2004). Operations Research, 400-403. 2004 Brooks/Cole, Thomson Learning Inc. ISBN 0-534-42362-0.
CONSTRUCTION
ENVIRONMENT
Selection of Microbial Seeds for Fast Granulation in Aerobic Treatment of Wastewater
Wang Xiao Hui (wang0048@ntu.edu.sg) Volodymyr Ivanov (cvivanov@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Tiong Lee, Stephen Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Bio-granulation is a new technology which can be used in municipal and industrial aerobic wastewater treatment. Microbial granules have advantages over activated sludge such as fast settling and higher resistance to toxic substance, diverse microbial community, removal of particles [1] and ability to perform aerobic and anaerobic processes [2]. However, the formation of microbial granules from activated sludge requires several weeks [2], whereas activated sludge system can be started up in several days. Therefore, one of the aims of this research was the selection of microbial cultures and the development of microbial seeds to shorten the granule-forming period from several weeks to a few days. Another aim was screening of these microbial cultures on their bio-safety so that only safe microbial cultures will be used in the study and commerical development of the seeds for fast microbial granulation.
Results
Isolation and identification of strains Totally, 19 strains with different types of colonies were isolated from microbial granules. Five microbial strains with an aggregation index of higher than 50% were selected for 16s rRNA gene identification. The aggregation index of each culture is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Properties of isolated cultures Isolated strain Aeromonas caviae strain A Enterobacter agglomerans strain B Pantoea agglomerans strain C No. of bases used to establish identity 1503 1349 1491 1338 1408 Aggregation index 67.4 71.9 83.9 65 51
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Material and Methods

Reactors set-up and operation Lab-scale column sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were used, each with a working volume of 2.5 L. Control process was started with 100 mL of activated sludge with a concentration of mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) of 3000 mg/L. The experimental process was started using 45 mL of Pseudomonas veronii cell suspension and 10 ml of activated sludge suspension. The experimental and control sequencing batch reactors were operated with a cycle of 3 h, including 5 min of influent filling, 169 min of aeration, 1 min settling and 5 min of effluent discharge. Effluent was discharged from the middle port of the reactor at a volumetric exchange ratio of 50%, giving a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6 h. Air was supplied through a dispenser at the reactor bottom with an airflow rate of 2.5 L/min. Synthetic wastewater was composed of glucose, 2 g L-1, (NH4)2SO4, 0.2 g L-1, Nutrient Broth (Difco, Detroit, USA), 0.15 g L-1; KH2PO4, 0.1 g L-1, MgSO4 .7H2O, 0.04 g L-1; CaCl2.2H2O, 0.04 g L-1; FeSO4.7H2O, 0.02 g L-1and trace element solution, 1 ml L-1. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading of the reactors was 8.5g COD L-1 day-1.
Klebsiella pneumoniae strain D Pseudomonas veronii strain E
Biosafety screening of strains

Although the strains which have higher aggregation abilities could be used as microbial seeds for granulation enhancement, the human and environmental safety assessment has to be carried out before application. Among the identified five microbial strains, Aeromonas caviae, is know to be a human pathogenic bacteria, the species Klebsiella pneumoniae is a urinary tract pathogen. The release of the strains of these species into environmental engineering systems might potentially cause health problems for human and animals. Therefore, the strain K. pneumoniae is not suitable for environmental engineering application because of bio-safety issues. The species of Pantoea agglomerans, previously named as Enterobacter agglomerans, is listed in Biohazard group 1, a member of the phytopathogenic genus Erwinia. Although this organism is usually relatively benign, it does have a risk for nosocomial infection. Therefore, only strain of Pseudomonas veronii might be considered as suitable one for the treatment of wastewater because until now there has been no published data on its pathogenicity. Therefore, strain Pseudomonas veronii was selected for the further trials
as a starter culture for the formation of microbial granules in aerobic wastewater treatment.
Enhanced formation of granules

The mixture of Pseudomonas veronii cells and activated sludge was used in experiment. The control was inoculated with activated sludge collected from a local municipal wastewater treatment plant. Granules started to form in experimental bioreactors after eight days of cultivation (Figure1), while only microbial flocs could be seen at that time in the control. It was shown that addition of strains with higher aggregation abilities than that of activated sludge, diminished the duration of granulation process from several weeks to 8 days. This evaluation is based on the value of SVI, which was lower than 70 mL g-1 of the typical value of matured granules (Figure 2). The COD removal efficiencies for both control and experiment reactors were stable at 85% to 98%. Cultivation of cells from the dispersed granules on solid medium showed that 40 6% of colonies from the granules formed after 10 days of cultivation in the experimental reactor were colonies of Pseudomonas veronii. This indicates that the added strain dominated in formed aerobic granules.
Figure 2. SVI change during granule formation. : control; : experiment.
Figure 1. The granules formed from the Pseudomonas veronii strain and activated sludge.
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Discussion
Bioaugmentation of activated sludge with specialized bacterial strains (microbial seeds), has been practiced since the 1960s. Their application in wastewater treatment solves operational problems, such as shock loading in treatment plant. Bioaugmentation could be a powerful tool and cost effective method to improve several aspects in wastewater treatment processes such as improved flocculation and degradation of recalcitrant compounds. Due to selection of microbial strain with high self-aggregation aerobic granules were formed in eight days of cultivation, instead of several weeks required for the formation of the granules from activated sludge. Another important aspect of selection and screening of the seeds for microbial granulation was isolation and testing of safe strain of the species Pseudomonas veronii for fast microbial granulation in aerobic wastewater treatment.
References
1. Ivanov V, Tay J-H, Tay ST-L, Jiang H-L. Removal of micro-particles by microbial granules used for aerobic wastewater treatment. Water Sci Technol 2004;50:147154 Ivanov V, Tay J-H, Liu Q-S, et al. Microstructural optimization of wastewater treatment by aerobic granular sludge. In: Bathe S, Kreuk Md, McSwain B, Schwarzenbeck N, eds. Aerobic Granular Sludge. London: IWA Publishing, 2005:43-52
2.
ENVIRONMENT
Stabilization/Solidification of Industrial Waste Sludges using MSWI Fly Ash

Chui Peng Cheong (cpcchui@ntu.edu.sg) Cao Yali (pg13158183@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash and heavy metals-bearing sludge are hazardous wastes that must be solidified and/or stabilized (S/S) before landfill disposal. Most metal-bearing sludges are high in Al2O3 and SO3 chemical composition and when combined with MSWI fly ash will result in the formation of Friedels salt and ettringite hydrate in the S/S matrix [1] which provides a better fixing effectiveness for heavy metals. The objective of this study was to use MSWI fly ash as a binding material for codisposing heavy metal-bearing sludges. The co-disposal effectiveness of the mix was evaluated by analyzing its physical and leaching properties as well as hydrate composition.
Table 1. Mix proportions for each type of metal sludge (% by weight) Mix 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 OPC (%) 0 0 5 5 10 10 15 15 MSWI FA (%) 0 50 0 45 0 45 0 40 Sludge (%) 100 50 95 50 90 45 85 45
Experimental Details and Results

Materials The MSWI fly ash used in this study was collected from the Senoko Incineration Plant. The three industrial waste sludges (labeled as A, B, and C) were collected from different local chemical and electronics plants. The sludge was first dried at 103oC and subsequently ground to less than 9.5 mm in size. The target heavy metals selected for this study were copper, lead, manganese, nickel, and zinc, based on their presence in the raw sludges. Each of the three types of sludges was mixed with different proportions of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and MSWI fly ash as indicated in Table 1. The mixes were prepared at a water to solid ratio of 0.3. The sludge-cement-fly ash matrix was cast in 50 mm cubes and left to air-cure after demoulding. Compressive Strength of Fly ash Cement Matrix The US-EPA recommended value of 0.3 MPa was adopted as the target compressive strength of the solidified matrix for landfill disposal [2]. The compressive strengths at 3 and 7 days for the various sludge-cement-fly ash matrices were tested and are given in Table 2. There was a general increase in strength with increase in cement in the matrix. Sludge samples with fly ash and cement were found to exhibit a higher compressive strength than those with cement alone. Samples from sludge B, however, registered extremely low compressive strength and experienced extreme deformation during the tests. The failure of the stabilization process was due to its greasy nature, which inhibited mixing and hydration of the fly ash and cement. Leaching of Heavy Metals The US-EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) Method [2] was used to determine the leaching of
heavy metals from the different matrices. Tables 3a, b, and c list the concentrations of various heavy metals in the leachate of mixes using the three raw sludges. As shown, the leached concentrations for Pb, Zn, and Ni from the raw sludges far exceeded the limits allowed for landfill disposal as specified by the National Environment Agency (NEA), Singapore. However, they were within the legal limits when stabilized by cement and/or fly ash. XRD analysis The results from X-ray diffraction analysis for matrices A2 and A8 given in Figure 1 shows the formation of three new reactive products, in addition to the remaining phases from the raw MSWI fly ash such as KCl, NaCl, CaSO4, and Ca(OH)2. For matrix A2, the ettringite (AFt) phase and Friedels salt phase were formed after 7 days of hydration. The main peaks for AFt were at 9.73, 5.61, and 3.88 , and that for Friedels salt phase were at 7.86, 2.86, and 3.86. In addition, there was also a C-S-H phase formed in matrix A8, besides AFt and Friedels salts. This C-S-H phase peaked at 2.97 and 1.84 . The C-S-H phase is an important phase responsible for the strength development of cement-based materials. The inclusion of cement was responsible for the formation of the C-S-H phase in matrix A8, which resulted in a higher compressive strength than matrix A2.
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Figure 1. XRD of matrixes after 7 days of hydration
Table 2. Compressive strength of different mix proportions (MPa) Sludge A Mix A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 3-day * 0.12 0.16 0.61 0.17 1.31 0.90 1.94 7-day * 0.36 0.22 0.99 0.15 2.05 1.31 2.05 Sludge B Mix B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 3-day * * 0.03 0.06 0.05 0.03 0.05 0.03 7-day * * 0.03 0.07 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.03 Sludge C Mix C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 3-day * * * 0.29 * 0.18 0.1 1.11 7-day * * * 0.67 * 0.52 0.14 1.76
* Samples disintegrated upon demoulding due to very low strength.
Table 3a. TCLP results of sludge A samples Element As Cr Cu Fe Pb

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NEA Standard 5 5 100 100 5 50 5 100
TCLP concentration of mix samples (mg/L)
A1
<0.030 0.057 60.2 0.184 5.022 0.144 0.591 1.077
A2
0.038 0.151 0.099 0.051 0.12 0.221 <0.002 0.104
A3
<0.030 0.02 1.254 0.062 0.322 0.225 0.17 0.092
A4
<0.030 0.095 0.084 0.041 0.071 0.06 0.015 0.039
A5
<0.030 0.048 0.292 0.031 0.067 0.124 0.043 0.022
A6
<0.030 0.134 0.104 0.033 0.078 0.045 0.017 0.064
A7
<0.030 0.03 13.88 0.063 3.17 0.816 0.742 0.413
A8
<0.03 0.104 0.107 0.036 0.044 0.067 0.005 0.018
Mn Ni Zn
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Table 3b. TCLP results of sludge B samples Element As Cr Cu Fe Pb Mn Ni Zn NEA Standard 5 5 100 100 5 50 5 100 TCLP concentration of mix samples (mg/L) B1 <0.030 0.295 2.055 2169 0.527 33.3 3.23 2522 B2 <0.030 0.018 0.158 5.239 2.693 0.172 0.065 18.27 B3 <0.030 0.009 5.463 1.72 0.14 37.5 4.184 3799 B4 <0.030 0.378 0.976 0.678 <0.001 0.143 0.02 9.746 B5 <0.030 <0.001 4.515 0.499 0.053 28.8 2.981 2577.5 B6 <0.030 0.708 0.905 0.386 <0.001 0.147 <0.002 10.18 B7 <0.030 <0.001 2.376 0.237 <0.001 20 1.95 1747 B8 <0.030 0.539 0.58 0.12 <0.001 0.092 <0.002 5.57
Table 3c. TCLP results of sludge C samples Element As Cr Cu Fe Pb Mn Ni Zn NEA Standard 5 5 100 100 5 50 5 100 TCLP concentration of mix samples (mg/L) C1 <0.030 <0.001 0.333 0.045 1.198 0.093 20.6 0.268 C2 <0.03 <0.001 0.012 0.067 9.404 0.009 0.067 1.602 C3 <0.03 <0.001 0.116 0.021 0.185 0.077 9.787 0.019 C4 <0.03 0.125 0.286 <0.001 0.092 0.078 0.25 <0.003 C5 <0.03 0.028 0.22 0.01 0.076 0.026 1.544 <0.003 C6 <0.03 0.162 0.242 <0.001 0.057 0.025 0.046 <0.003 C7 <0.03 0.085 0.243 <0.001 0.053 0.012 0.531 <0.003 C8 <0.03 0.148 0.266 <0.001 0.016 0.024 0.048 0.01
ENVIRONMENT
FTIR analysis The micro-surrounding of structures for reaction products can be characterized by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum. As shown in Figure 2, the two bands at 601 cm1 and 876 cm-1 were related to the symmetric and asymmetric vibrations of Al-OH bands in the Al(OH)6 octahedra structure of ettringite and Friedels salt [3]. The band at 1622 cm-1 was an H-O-H vibration (v2H2O) of the interlayer water for the Friedels salt phase whereas the broad bands at 3406 and 3539 cm-1 were due to vibration of OH ions, (vOH) in the structural water [3]. Chloride was not absorbed in the band range 4004000 cm-1. The peaks located at 1142 cm-1 and 1118 cm-1 could be attributed to v3-SO4, which confirmed the presence of ettringite. The band at 937 cm-1 for matrix A8 was due to Si-O stretching band [4], which proved the presence of the C-S-H phase.
Conclusions
MSWI fly ash is a suitable material for stabilizing heavy metal-bearing sludges. The matrices of heavy metal-bearing sludge and MSWI fly ash have strong fixing capacities for such heavy metals as Zn, Pb, Cu, Ni and Mn. The addition of MSWI fly ash can improve the strength of the matrix. Specimens with only 5% to 15% cement content were observed to be sufficient to achieve the target compressive strength of 0.3 MPa required for landfill disposal. An optimum mix comprising 45% fly ash, 5% cement and 50% of the industrial sludge could provide the required solidification and stabilization. The main hydration products of the optimum S/S matrix are ettringite, Friedels salt and C-S-H. These hydration products play an important role in the fixing of heavy metals.
References
[1] Andres A, Ibanez R, Ortiz I, Irabien JA. 1998, Experimental Study of the Waste Binder Anhydrite in the Solidification/Stabilization Process of Heavy Metal Sludges. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 57:155-168. [2] US-EPA Method 1311, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure. [3] Myneni SCB, Traina SJ, Waychunas GA, Logan TJ. 1998, Vibrational Spectroscopy of Functional Group Chemistry and Arsenate Coordination in Ettringite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 62:3499-3514. [4] Stoch A, Zdaniewicz M, Paluszkiewicz CZ. 1999, The Effect of Polymethylsiloxanes on Hydration of Clinker Phases. Journal of Molecular Structure, 511512:319325. [5] Birnin-Yauri1 UA, Glasser FP. 1998, Friedels salt, Ca2Al(OH)6(Cl,OH)2H2O: Its solid solutions and their role in chloride binding. Cement and Concrete Research, 28:1713-1723. [6] Yousuf M, Mollah A, Lu F, Cocke DL. (1998), An Xray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic(FT-IR) Characterization of the Speciation of Arsenic (V) in Portland cementTtype-V. The Science of the Total Environment, 224:57-68.
Figure 2. FTIR of matrices after 7days of hydration
The Al-OH bending vibration of pure Friedels salt occurred at 780 cm-1 and 601 cm-1[5]. For sludge-fly ash matrices, however, there was no trace of Al-OH bending vibration besides the vibration of AlO6 octahedron at 601 cm-1. In addition, a new Al-OH bending vibration at 670 cm-1 was detected [5]. According to the results of Mollahs work [6], this shift of wave is related to the replacement of bivalent heavy metals for cations in the structure of ettringite and Friedels salt phases resulting in the changes of the Al(OH)6 octahedra.
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Occurrence of G-Bacteria in Aerobic Granules

A. M. Maszenan (cmaszenan@ntu.edu.sg) J. H. Tay (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg) Stephen T. L. Tay (ctltay@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Microbial granulation is an attractive novel process for biological wastewater treatment, where the microbial cells are not freely suspended in the bulk liquid as in conventional activated sludge systems but instead are organized into highly organized structure known as granules. These granules are capable of removing biodegradable organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus and toxic pollutants and can be fully formed in sequential batch reactors within three weeks of start-up (Tay et al., 2002). These aerobic granules also have several advantages over conventional activated sludge systems, including a strong and compact microbial structure, good settling ability, high biomass retention and the ability to accept a high organic loading rate (Moy et al., 2002). Furthermore, aerobic granules have demonstrated high toxic tolerant to phenol (Jiang et al., 2002). Studies conducted so far have centred on operational conditions on the formation of aerobic granules, and microbiological studies employing culture independent techniques such as clone library revealed a large diversity of bacterial population in aerobic granules at different growth stages (Yi et al., 2002). Recently in our routine microscopic examination of aerobic granules microbial population, cocci with a distinctive tetrad arrangement was observed (Figure 1a). Some of these GBacteria have also been observed to form clusters (Figure 1b). Cocci with a distinctive tetrad arrangement were first observed by Cech & Hartman (1990) in an alternating aerobic-anaerobic sequencing batch reactor fed with glucose as the sole carbon substrate, and they called them GBacteria. Pure culture studies based on extensive isolation and characterization have revealed that G-Bacteria is very diverse with several new genus being described (Maszenan, 2000). In this study, a similar approach was employed to study the G-Bacteria in aerobic granules so that their possible roles in aerobic granules could be elucidated.
Figure 1. Morphology of G-bacteria obtained from aerobic granules sludge biomass from a laboratory-scale SBR. (a) Light micrograph of tetrad and cluster cells in granular sludge biomass (b) Scanning electron micrograph of strain GR1-019 showing cocci and cluster arrangement. Scale bar in (a) represent 5 m and in (b) represent 3 m
Biochemical and Enzymes characterization

Substrate utilization capabilities for isolates were obtained with both GN and GP Biolog microplate systems and API 20E (BioMerieux). Enzyme profiles were determined using API ZYM strips (BioMerieux) following the manufacturers instructions. Gram stain was performed according to the modified Hucker method and confirmed with an alternative method employing 3% KOH. Electron microscopic examination was performed as detailed in Maszenan (2000).
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Phylogenetic determination
The almost complete 16S rRNA gene of isolates were obtained using the ABI model sequencer (Applied Biosystems, Perkin-Elmer) and ABI PRISM BigDyeTM Terminator Cycle sequencing Chemistry (Applied Biosystems, Perkin-Elmer), and assembled with BioEdit version 5.10. Phylogenetic analysis performed using several methods described in the PHYLIP package including DNAdist and neighbour-joining software. Trees were generated using TREECON after bootstrap and transversion analysis.
Methods Isolation and cultivation

Aerobic granules appeared in the reactor after 2 weeks of operation with an organic loading of 6 g COD/L- day, operated at a cycle sequencing time of 4 h, i.e. 6 cycles per day at an aeration rate of 2.5 L/min. Aerobic granules were gently disrupted with sterile glass bead for 15 minutes. Isolates of cocci in tetrad arrangement or cluster were obtained by micromanipulation technique using a Skerman micromanipulator on glucose sulphide agar, and incubated at 25C for a week. The purity of cultures that grew was checked microscopically and only those fitting the morphological description of G-bacteria were recovered and stored in GS medium in 15% glycerol at -80C.
Results and discussion

Based on 16S rDNA sequencing, a large proportion of the isolates obtained belonged to the genus Micrococcus, which is a Gram-positive bacteria with High G+C content (Table 1), and none of the G-Bacteria belonging to the genera Amaricoccus, Tessaracoccus, Friedmanniella (Maszenan, 2000) which were previously isolated from activated sludge systems were isolated in aerobic granules. Interestingly, a Gram-positive isolate designated strain GR1015 was isolated in aerobic granules and found to be closely
ENVIRONMENT
Table 1. Taxonomic affiliation of G-Bacteria isolate obtained from aerobic granules. Taxonomic affiliation Gram-positive bacteria Micrococcus Arthrobacter Kytococcus Frankia Tetrasphaera Endocytic bacterium Gram-negative bacteria Haloanella Flavobacterium -Proteobacteria Moraxella Number of isolates 28 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 GR1-007 GR1-001 GR1-019, GR1-58 GR1-015 GR1-013 GR1-022 GR1-045 GR1-056 GR1-051 Figure 2. Phylogenetic tree based on analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences of strain GR1-019 and representatives of high G+C bacteria. All sequences used in analysis were obtained from GeneBank. Bootstrap values, expressed as a percentage of 100 replications are shown at the branching points. Scale bar indicates 10 substitutions per 100 nucleotides.
Strain number
affiliated to the genus Tetrasphaera. G-Bacteria belonging to the genus Tetrasphaera was isolated from an activated sludge system designed for enhanced biological phosphorus removal, and has been show to accumulate polyp in pure culture studies. Another isolate of Gram-positive bacteria isolated in this study is strain GR1-019 which was found to be closely related to the genus Frankia (Figure 2). Strain GR1-019 also stains positive for polyp which suggests it too can accumulate polyp as storage polymers. In addition, strain GR1-019T also stains positive for capsule stain with the Indian ink method. The ability to synthesize storage polymers such polyp and glycogen in the feast-famine cycle of alternating aerobic-anaerobic reactor is a trait which ensure G-bacteria can compete with other bacterial populations in activated sludge systems. Furthermore capsule and exopolysaccharide protect G-Bacteria from predation and also enhances bacterial adhesion which ensures GBacteria are retained in the system used to cultivate aerobic granules.
Aggregation of immobilized activated sludge cells into aerobically grown microbial granules for the aerobic biodegradation of phenol. Letters in Applied Microbiology 35, 439-445. [3] Maszenan A. M. (2000). The occurrence, characterization and biodiversity of G-Bacteria in activated sludge systems. Ph D thesis. La Trobe University, Australia. [4] Moy B. Y.-P. Tay J.-H., Toh S.-K. Liu Y. and Tay S. T.L. (2002). High organic loading influences the physical characteristic of aerobic sludge granules. Letters in Applied Microbiology 34, 407-412. [5] Tay S. T.-L., Ivanov V., Yi S., Zhuang W.-Q. and Tay J.H. (2002). Presence of Anaerobic Bacteriodes in aerobically grown microbial granules. Microbial Ecology 44, 278-285. [6] Yi S., Tay J.-H., Maszenan A. M. and Tay S. T.-L. (2002). A culture-independent approach for studying microbial diversity in aerobic granules. Water Science and Technology 47, 283-290.
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References
[1] Cech J. S. and Hartman P. (1990). Glucose induced breakdown of enhanced biological phosphate removal. Environmental Technology 11, 651-656. [2] Jiang H.-L., Tay J.-H. and Tay S. T.-L. (2002).
Distribution of EPS and Cell Surface Hydrophobicity in Aerobic Granules

Wang Zhiwu (WangZW@pmail.ntu.edu.sg) Liu Yu (cyliu@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo-Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Aerobic granulation as a promising biotechnology for wastewater treatment has attracted intensive research attention. Most research on aerobic granulation has been focused on the cultivation and physical characteristics of aerobic granules. So far, the structure of anaerobic granules has been studied extensively, and extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) have been found to contribute to the build-up of the matrix structure and the stability of anaerobic granules (Liu et al., 2004). The failure of microbial aggregation has been found to be correlated to the metabolic blocking of EPS synthesis, while EPS deficiency would result in a weak structure of anaerobic granules. Compared to anaerobic granules, little is currently known about the internal structure of aerobic granules as well as the EPS and cell hydrophobicity distribution in aerobic granules. Thus, this study investigated the distribution of EPS and hydrophobicity in aerobic granules as well as the essential role of EPS in aerobic granulation.
Figure 1. Cross section view of the aerobic granule in bright field (A) and dark field (B) visualization modes, Bar: 500 m
28
granules were sliced and the respective density of the outer and the inner layer was then measured. Results indicate that the density of the outer layer of granule was higher than that of the core part of the aerobic granule. Hence, the core part of granule was composed of transparent and jelly-like substances, while the outer shell of the granule mainly consisted of dense materials leading to an opaque structure. EPS and hydrophobicity distribution in aerobic granule The outer shell of the aerobic granule was separated from the core part and the corresponding EPS content as well as hydrophobicity was determined. Figure 2 shows that the EPS content in the core part of the granule is nearly 5 times higher than that in the shell part of aerobic granule. To localize the EPS distribution, the sliced aerobic granule was stained by calcofluor white, and was then visualized by epifluorescent microscopy. Using a fresh granule as the reference (Figure 3), it was found that the fluorescent dye was mainly attached to the outer shell of the granule, while the fluorescence was very weak in the center of the granule. The fluorescence intensity profile in the direction of the granule radius further shows that most calcofluor white stained EPS are situated in the outer shell of the granule with a depth of 400 (m below the granule surface. This may imply that the (-linked EPS would be mainly located in the outer shell of the granule. In
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Materials and methods

Aerobic granules were cultivated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and were fed with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. EPS were extracted from the ground granules according to the cold aqueous technique, and the extracted EPS were analyzed using calorimetric method. In this study, the sliced aerobic granule was stained with 300 mg L-1 calcofluor white (Fluorescent Brightener 28, Sigma) for 1 hour in 20 mL Phosphate Buffered Saline. The samples were then rinsed with 2 mL of Milli-Q water to decrease the background fluorescence and were visualized with Epifluorescence Microscope BX-FLA-3 (Olympus, Japan). In addition, intact and sectioned aerobic granules were visualized by Image Analyzer (IA) (Olympus Imaging Analyzing System SZX9, Japan). Hydrophobicity of the aerobic granule was determined and expressed as the percentage of cells adhering to the hexadecane after 15 min partitioning.
Results
The heterogeneous structure of aerobic granules Figure 1 shows that the aerobic granule has an opaque outer layer with a depth of about 800 (m from the granule surface and a relatively transparent inner core. It appears that the highly transparent center part of the granule was not void, and was instead filled with jelly-like substances. Five aerobic
Figure 2. Hydrophobicity (black) and EPS (gray) distribution in the shell and core part of the aerobic granule
ENVIRONMENT
Figure 3. Cross section view of aerobic granules, A: fresh granule; B: granule stained by calcofluor white, Bar: 100 m
fact, calcofluor white has been commonly used to label the (-linked EPS (deBeer et al., 1996). In addition, Figure 2 shows the respective hydrophobicity of the shell and core of aerobic granule. It seems that the granule outer shell has a much higher hydrophobicity than the granule core.
production of soluble EPS in the granule core (Figure 2). It is a reasonable consideration that soluble EPS would be less important in constructing and maintaining the structural stability of the aerobic granule, i.e. EPS property and distribution in aerobic granules instead of their quantity would play a crucial role in improving the stability of aerobic granules. In addition, it appears from Figures 2 and 3 that the high hydrophobicity of the outer shell of aerobic granule result from the insoluble (-linked polysaccharides accumulated in the shell. In fact, insoluble (-linked EPS has been found to serve as the backbone of the biofilm structure.
References
[1] Aquino S.F., Stuckey D.C. (2003) Production of soluble microbial products (SMP) in anaerobic chemostats under nutrient deficiency. J Environ Eng-Asce 129: 1007-1014. [2] deBeer D., OFlaharty V., Thaveesri J., Lens P., Verstraete W. (1996) Distribution of extracellular polysaccharides and flotation of anaerobic sludge. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 46: 197-201. [3] Laspidou C.S., Rittmann B.E. (2002) A unified theory for extracellular polymeric substances, soluble microbial products, and active and inert biomass. Water. Res 36: 2711-2720. [4] Liu Y.Q., Liu Y., Tay J.H. (2004) The effects of extracellular polymeric substances on the formation and stability of biogranules. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 65: 143-148. [5] Tay J.H., Tay S.T.L., Ivanov V., Pan S., Jiang H.L., Liu Q.S. (2003) Biomass and porosity profiles in microbial granules used for aerobic wastewater treatment. Lett Appl Microbiol 36: 297-301.
Discussion
Figure 1 shows that aerobic granules have a heterogeneous structure consisting of a dense outer shell and a loosestructure core, while the outer shell of the aerobic granule is mainly composed of (-linked EPS which are more hydrophobic (Figures 2 and 3). According to their physicochemical properties, EPS can be classified into bound EPS and soluble EPS, while generally, only soluble EPS are considered to be biodegradable (Laspidou and Rittmann, 2002). This may imply that the EPS detected in the core of aerobic granule would be easily biodegradable. Previous research showed that substrate could only penetrate to a depth of 800 (m below the aerobic granule surface (Tay et al., 2003). This may indicate that a nutrient deficient situation would be encountered in the core part of aerobic granules, as shown in Figure 1. There is evidence that the nutrient deficiency condition would induce the production of soluble EPS. It has been reported that compared to a balanced culture, 10 times more soluble EPS was secreted in nutrient deficiency culture (Aquino and Stuckey, 2003). This provides a plausible explanation for the enhanced
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Size-Dependent Diffusion Limitation in Aerobic Granules

Li Yong (liyo0002@ntu.edu.sg) Liu Yu (cyliu@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Aerobic granulation technology has attracted intensive research attention in recent years. Aerobic granules are aggregates of self-immobilized bacteria with a size up to several millimeters. Previous research looked mainly into the effect of operating conditions on aerobic granulation in sequencing batch reactor (SBR), as reviewed by Liu and Tay 2004. However, to date little information is known about diffusions of substances in aerobic granules. This study was aimed at simultaneously modeling diffusion of both dissolved oxygen and substrate in aerobic granules, while also predicting the change in the bulk substrate concentration. In order to optimize the design and operation of the aerobic granulation process, a sound understanding of mass transfer in granules is essential. Thus, this study is expected to offer useful information on the optimization of aerobic granular sludge SBR.
(1) in which v is the substrate conversion rate, s is substrate concentration and Ds is the diffusion coefficient. In fact, the substrate conversion rate can be expressed by the Monod equation: (2) in which x is biomass density and and max are the specific growth rate and the maximum specific growth rate respectively. Ks is the half constant and s is the substrate concentration Yx/s is the growth yield. Substitution of Eq. 2 into Eq. 1 gives Eq. 3: (3) The derivative at the center of granule is zero and the concentration of substrate at the surface of the granule is equal to its bulk solution. As Eq. 3 is a non-homogenous equation, in this study we developed a numerical method to completely solve Eq. 3 based on the Finite Difference Method (FDM). For this purpose, the radius is thus divided into n grids, i.e. (4) This numerical scheme is applied to all situations without making any assumption and therefore the accuracy is significantly increased. Dissolved oxygen is an essential element for the growth of the aerobic granule. It should be pointed out that Eq. 3 indeed can also be applied to oxygen if the set of parameters for substrate are replaced with the set of parameters for oxygen. After the substrate concentration is determined, the substrate utilization rate (v1) of a single aerobic granule can be calculated as follows: (5) Summation of the substrate utilization rates of all individual aerobic granules gives the total substrate utilization rate (vall): (6) in which V is reactor volume. At time dt, the change in substrate concentration in the reactor can be described as
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Mature aerobic granules were sorted into different sizes using the wet-sieving method. The sorted aerobic granules were transferred to beakers with a working volume of 800 mL. Synthetic wastewater was used in the batch experiments. Initial granule and substrate concentrations were maintained at 6250200 mg volatile solids (VS)/L and 465 mg COD/L, respectively. The experiments were conducted at 25C, and dissolved oxygen was kept at saturation level. Samples were analyzed for COD and VS by standard methods and dissolved oxygen was monitored by a dissolved oxygen meter (Model YSI 5000).

Models development Mature aerobic granules are considered to have an equilibrium or stable size when growth and detachment forces are balanced (Liu and Tay 2002). To develop one-dimensional models for aerobic granules, it is assumed that (i) an aerobic granule is isotopic in physical, chemical and biological properties, such as density, diffusion coefficient; (ii) an aerobic granule is ideally spherical; (iii) no nitrification and anaerobic degradation occur in the process; and (iv) aerobic granules response to the change in bulk substrate concentration so quickly that the response time can be ignored. The mass balance equations between the two layers whose radiuses are respectively, r and r+dr can be written as:
ENVIRONMENT
(7)
At an initial substrate concentration, Sbulk0, the bulk substrate concentration at any time t can be calculated as: (8)
As discussed earlier, Eq. 3 can not be solved analytically, and the method based on the finite difference principle is thus applied to solve this equation in the present study. At each time step, the state is considered pseudo-static, which means the bulk substrate concentration is constant at each time step. Then the change in the bulk substrate concentration is a process of mapping, i.e. the substrate concentration is determined by the previous time step. This model is valid for different substrates so long as the parameters are replaced with the specific substrate parameters. In this study, Eq. 3 was applied to organic substrate and dissolved oxygen under various operating conditions.
(a)
Diffusion of acetate and oxygen in differentsize aerobic granules

The initial acetate concentration and granule concentration were respectively kept at 465 mg COD/L and 6250 mg VS/L, and the initial DO was maintained at 8.3 mg/L. As Figure 1a shows, for aerobic granule with a radius of 0.1 mm, both oxygen and acetate can diffuse across the entire aerobic granule, while for aerobic granules with a radius of 0.3 mm, diffusion limitation appears (Figure 1b). For aerobic granules with a radius larger than 0.5 mm, oxygen limitation becomes obvious against the acetate diffusion. These results show that the penetration depth of DO tends to decrease from 280 to about 100 ?m as the granule radius increases from 0.5 to 1.0 mm. After the DO concentration drops to zero, the aerobic activity in granule is seriously suppressed, and this eventually leads to a flat acetate diffusion profile. In large-size aerobic granules acetate is not a limiting factor, i.e. microbial growth or activity would be determined by the availability of DO in the aerobic granule.
(b)
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(c)
It should be realized that most previous research on aerobic granulation investigated the profiles of DO and substrate separately. The oxygen profile inside an aerobic granule was not linked to substrate utilization. As shown in Figure 1, diffusion of substrate and oxygen in aerobic granule is a dynamic process, and is interrelated one another. The integrated approach as developed in this study may offer a more reasonable and powerful tool for the study of mass transfer of various substances in aerobic granule. Profile bulk substrate concentration in aerobic granular sludge reactor It is possible to simulate the bulk substrate concentration in
(d) Figure 1. Profiles of substrate (dash) and oxygen (solid) in aerobic granules with various radiuses (a) radius of 0.1mm (b) radius of 0.3 mm (c) radius of 0.5 mm (d) radius of 1.0mm.
the reactor during an operation cycle. According to Eq. 8, the substrate conversion rate is proportional to biomass concentration and is inversely related to the yield coefficient at a given granule radius. Figure 2 shows the bulk substrate
(a)
controlled in order to maximize their metabolic activity. The breakpoints in Figure 2 indeed represent the turn from oxygen limitation to substrate limitation. Under the condition of oxygen limitation, the substrate removal rate is mainly determined by the availability of dissolved oxygen, i.e. the substrate removal is independent of the bulk substrate concentration. This may explain why a pseudo zero-order reaction kinetics is observed for substrate in Figure 2. Such an observation is consistent with experimental results reported by Yang et al. (2004). However, under the substrate limitation condition, Figure 2 shows that the substrate removal tends to decrease with the decrease of the substrate concentration, i.e. it is a function of the substrate concentration. It is obvious that the performance of aerobic granular sludge SBR is mainly controlled by the availability of dissolved oxygen.
Conclusions
A one-dimensional model for aerobic granules was developed and was successfully applied to aerobic granular sludge SBR. The simulation model was completely solved without adding in any extra assumption in numerical analysis. This allows to synchronously simulate diffusion of acetate and dissolved oxygen under various conditions. It was shown that diffusion of acetate and oxygen in aerobic granule is a dynamic process, and is interrelated. Simulation on the overall performance of aerobic granular sludge SBR further indicated that dissolved oxygen would be a main factor that limits metabolic activity of aerobic granule, i.e. smaller aerobic granules exhibited higher metabolic activity in terms of the substrate removal rate. It becomes clear that in aerobic granules larger than 0.5 mm, the dissolved oxygen would be the bottleneck which limits the substrate utilization rate. It is expected that the proposed model can offer an effective and useful tool for predicting and optimizing the performance of an aerobic granular sludge reactor.
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(b) Figure 2. Substrate-time profiles in aerobic granular sludge reactors with different granules sizes. -: simulation; : experimental data (a) radius of 0.5mm (b) radius of 1.0mm.
concentration profiles in the reactors with various-size aerobic granules. In addition, two sets of experiments were also conducted using aerobic granules with different radiuses (Figure 2), and experimental conditions were designed to be similar to the simulation conditions, i.e. the initial substrate COD concentration was 465 mg/L and the dissolved oxygen was kept at 8.3 mg/L, while the granule concentration was maintained at 6250 mg VS/L. It can be seen in Figure 2 that simulation is in good agreement with the experimental data. Figure 2 shows that under the similar operation conditions, acetate can be removed fast in the reactor with small aerobic granules, e.g. the substrate removal rate by 0.5 mm granules (Figure 2a) is 3 times higher than that by 1.0 mm granules (Figure 2b). These seem to imply that the reactor with smallsize aerobic granules would be more efficient and have a higher treatment capacity than the reactor with large-size granules, i.e. the size of aerobic granules should be properly
References
[1] Liu, Y., Tay, J.H., 2002. The essential role of hydrodynamic shear force in the formation of biofilm and granular sludge. Water Res. 36, 1653-1665. [2] Tay, J.H., Liu, Q.S., Liu, Y., 2002.Characteristics of aerobic granules grown on glucose and acetate in sequential aerobic sludge blanket reactors. Environ. Technol. 23, 931-936. [3] Yang, S.F., Liu, Q.S., Tay, J.H., Liu, Y., 2004. Growth kinetics of aerobic granules developed in sequencing batch reactors. Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 38, 106-112.
ENVIRONMENT
Biological Treatment of Municipal Wastewater by Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Process

Lua Choon Hau (cchlua@ntu.edu.sg) Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg) Show Kuan Yeow (ckyshow@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) process characterized by low energy requirement, low sludge production, high loading capacity along with green energy yield in the form of biogas, is an attractive technology for wastewater treatment. However, its use is usually limited to high strength wastewater with soluble substrates. One of the challenges for UASB process is its applicability to lower-strength wastewaters, i.e., sewage and domestic wastewater. In this study, the application of UASB process for municipal wastewater treatment was examined.
Reactor setup and operation

Four lab-scale UASB reactors namely R1, R2, R3, and R4 were used in the study. The reactors were operated at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 24, 18, 12 and 6 hours corresponding to average organic loading rates (OLRs) of 0.28, 0.37, 0.56 and 1.12 kg COD/m3/d.

Experimental results showed that there was a fluctuation in effluent COD concentrations at each HRT applied during the first 3 weeks of operation, which was likely due to the sensitive startup period, and an unexpected high influent COD of 664 mg/L on day 9 fed to the system (Figure 1a). However, a relatively stable effluent COD of 49-85 mg/L was attained after startup, resulting in a 6378% removal. A gradual improvement in COD removal could also be observed from day 27 in all reactors (Figure 1b). Figure 1 shows that R1 with a HRT of 24 hrs had the lowest effluent COD and the highest removal efficiency, while R4 with a HRT of 6 hours had the highest effluent COD and the lowest removal efficiency. This is expected because longer liquid residence time would lead to more complete biodegradation of substrate. Figure 2 shows the effluent suspended solids concentration and its removal efficiency. A relatively stable effluent suspended solids concentration could be obtained in all the reactors even as early as two weeks after the startup. An average effluent SS concentration of 26, 28, 29 and 36 mg/L was achieved for reactors R1 to R4 respectively, at steady-state conditions. The effluent suspended solids concentration was strongly related to HRT applied which would influence the washout of biosolids. The highest liquid upflow velocity at 0.093 m/h with a HRT of 6 hours was relatively low as compared with many full-scale UASB systems treating industrial wastewater. Low liquid upflow velocity could provide beneficial effects on removal of suspended solids. These results indicate that UASB reactor has an excellent capability for removal of suspended solids.
Figure 2. Suspended solids concentrations (a) and removal efficiencies (b) Figure 1. COD concentration (a) and removal efficiency (b)
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removal efficiency of 63% and SS removal efficiency of 63% were obtained in the reactor with HRT of 6 hours. However, comparing the difference in COD and SS removal between 6 and 24 hours HRT, it is obvious that the improvement is not significant. As discussed earlier, an effluent COD of well below 100 mg/L and SS of less than 50 mg/L was achieved in the reactor with a HRT of 6 hours. This suggests that municipal wastewater can be treated by UASB operated at HRTs as low as 6 hours, with treated effluent conforming to the discharge standards.
Figure 3. Effect of HRT on COD and SS removal efficiencies
Conclusion
The results demonstrate that UASB is a feasible treatment process for low-strength municipal wastewater. The UASB reactors exhibited capability for excellent suspended solids and COD removal conforming to the discharge requirements.
A comparison of COD and SS removal is presented in Figure 3. It can be seen that 78% COD and 73% SS removal efficiencies were achieved in the reactor with a HRT of 24 hours. Both COD and SS removal efficiencies decreased with HRT, and a COD
2006
Treatment of Lipid-Containing Food Waste in Hybrid Anaerobic Solid-Liquid (HASL) System

Liu Xue-Yan (liux0012@.ntu.edu.sg) Olena Stabnikova (costab@ntu.edu.sg) Wang Jing-Yuan (jywang@ntu.edu.sg)
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Introduction
The hybrid anaerobic solid-liquid (HASL) system, which was developed as a modified two-phase anaerobic digester, proved to be highly efficient for the treatment of solid food waste [1, 2]. The efficiency of anaerobic digestion depends on the composition of treated matter. Lipids (characterized as oil, grease and fat), which are present in high quantity in Asian food, are potential inhibitors of methane production [3]. It is well known that fat and vegetable oil are biodegraded to glycerol and longchain fatty acids (LCFA), followed by subsequent oxidation of LCFA. LCFA are slowly degraded under anaerobic conditions and the millimolar concentration can inhibit the growth of anaerobic microorganisms, including acetogenic bacteria and methanogens. However, the energy value of lipids is twice as high as that of carbohydrates. Therefore, theoretically, the presence of lipids in anaerobically treated matter can increase the biogas production.
shredded food waste was placed in each acidogenic reactor. Then lipids were added to these four reactors as follows, % (w/w of total solids in food waste): 0, 20, 30 and 40 in control and experiments E1, E2 and E3, respectively. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) was determined in the wellmixed samples in triplicates by standard methods. VFA were analyzed using HPLC (Perkin Elmer, Series 200, Norwalk, CT, USA). Biogas production was monitored by a wet gas meter (Ritter TG05, Bochum, Germany). Enumeration of autofluorescent methanogens was performed by epifluorescence microscope BXFLA-3 (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan).

The influence of different lipid contents on the VFA and COD production in the acidogenic reactors was shown in Figure 1. The maximum VFA concentrations were 1724, 1610, 1597 and 1449 mg/L in control, E1, E2 and E3, respectively (Figure 1a). The production of VFA in the acidogenic reactors with 0, 20, 30 and 40% of lipids, were 7.1, 7.3, 7.4, and 6.4 g, respectively, during 14 days of operation. Change of COD concentrations in the effluent from the acidogenic reactors showed a similar trend (Figure 1b). Maxima were reached on 3rd and then decreased consistently to the end of food waste treatment. The biogas production in control and experiments was shown in Figure 2.

The lab-scale HASL system was operated in a constant temperature room at 351C. The anaerobic granules, adapted to high concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA), were used as the inoculum for the methanogenic reactor. Food waste was collected from a canteen at NTU and was shredded into particles with an average size of 6 mm in a Robot-Coupe Shredder CL50 (Ultra, Hobart, France). Lipids were prepared by melting the internal fat of a hog followed by solidifying them at room temperature. 800g
ENVIRONMENT
(a) Figure 3. Microphotograph of methanogens in the methanogenic reactor.
(b) Figure 1. Change of VFA concentrations (a) and COD concentrations (b) in the effluent from the acidogenic reactors in control and experiments.
Figure 4. Concentrations of autofluorescent methanogens in the methanogenic reactor.
Conclusions
The HASL system can be used for the treatment of food waste containing 20 40% of lipids. The presence of lipids in food waste had two main effects on anaerobic digestion of food waste in the HASL system: (1) enhanced production of biogas and (2) inhibited the growth of methanogens. The first effect was prevalent when the lipid content was 20%. It was balanced by the second effect when the lipid content was 30%. The negative effect dominated when the lipid content was 40%. A lipid content of 40% diminished the VFA production in the acidogenic reactor as well as biogas production and the concentrations of methanogens in the methanogenic reactor.
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Figure 2. Biogas production in control and experiments
The total biogas production increased with addition of 20 30% of lipids, but further increase of lipid content in food waste diminished its positive effect on anaerobic digestion. This was probably due to a higher biogas production potential of lipids compared to carbohydrates when lipid content was low (20 30%), but the higher lipid content (40%) inhibited methanogenic activity. The concentrations of methanogens in the methanogenic reactor were estimated by direct count under epifluorescent microscope and shown in Figures 3 and 4. The presence of lipids in food waste enhanced the energetical value of effluent from acidogenic reactor causing an increase of growth of autofluorescent methanogens. However, the content of lipids higher than 20% inhibited bacterial growth. The growth curves of methanogens for E2 with the lipid content of 30% did not differ much from ones for E1 with the lipids content of 20%, but for E3 with lipid content of 40% the growth curves were the same as those for control.
References
[1] Wang JY, Xu HL, and Tay JH. (2002). A hybrid two-phase system for anaerobic digestion of food waste. Wat Sci Technol 45:159165 [2] Wang JY, Zhang H, Stabnikova O, Ang SS, and Tay JH. (2005). A hybrid anaerobic solid-liquid (HASL) system for food waste digestion. Wat Sci Technol 52: 223228. [3] Ivanov VN, Stabnikova EV, Stabnikov VP, Kim IS, and Zuber A. (2002). Effects of iron compounds on the treatment of fat-containing wastewaters. Appl Biochem Microbiol 38:255258.
Characterisation of Fouling on Spent Ultrafiltration Membrane Surface from a Commercial Membrane Bioreactor
William Phay (william.phay@keppelseghers.com.sg) Dickson Lai (ckllai@ntu.edu.sg) Harry Seah (Harry_Searh@pub.gov.sg) Darren Delai Sun (ddsun@ntu.edu.sg) James O Leckie (leckie@stanford.edu)
Introduction
In recent years, the biological treatment of wastewaters has seen some important advancement in the way of membrane bioreactor (MBR), which is a combination process involving biological processes and filtration membrane separation. However, the membranes in MBR systems are in constant direct contact with the harsh raw wastewater in the biological reactor. The biological suspension of activated sludge contains biological flocs formed by the conglomeration of microorganisms and a whole range of soluble, insoluble and colloidal compounds. As a result, the MBR membrane is susceptible to solids accumulation and fouling that cause the flux to decline or the pressure required to maintain a given flux to increase. This study characterizes the spent ultrafiltration membranes from the commercial MBR system at PUB Chestnut Wastewater Treatment Plant, particularly to examine the surface deposition after 9 months contact with biomass in tropical environmental conditions with monthly regular chemical cleaning.
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Figure 1. Fouled flat sheet membrane before chemical cleaning
Materials and Methodology

All analytical reagents used were obtained from Aldrich Chemical Company (USA). The ultrafiltration (UF) membrane used in this commercial MBR study was kindly supplied by Kubota, Japan. The membrane plate was removed from the biological activated sludge tank for regular NaOCl cleaning each month. Before putting it back into the biological activated sludge, the membrane plate was carefully washed using clean water to remove free chlorine. A Jeol JSM5310LV SEM with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy was employed to study the surface morphology. The samples were gold coated prior to SEM analysis. A Perkin Elmer UV/Vis spectrometer (Lambda Bio20) was used to measure the spectra from standard humic acid solutions at pH 4,7 and 9 and to compare the extracted solution from the membrane and fiber layers.
Figure 2. Fouled flat sheet membrane after chemical cleaning
Figure 3. Flat-plate UF membrane assembly configuration
Results and Discussion

Figure 1 shows a fouled membrane surface before NaOCl treatment. It can be seen that the UF membrane surface has an attachment and growth layer. There are generally two kinds of fouling: surface fouling and pore fouling. Pore fouling involves the blocking of the membrane pores by
soluble organic and inorganic compounds, and microorganisms such as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and soluble microbiological products (SMP). Figure 2 reveals that monthly regular cleaning is effective in removing the deposits on the surface of UF membranes (surface fouling), even though the membrane has been used for 9 months. However, close examination of the membrane surface indicates a fouling problem, which was observed as dark patches of brownish material with occasional black patches in certain localized regions.
ENVIRONMENT
In order to investigate the nature of this fouling problem, investigations using SEM-EDX and UV visible spectrometer techniques were carried out. The UF membrane element, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, is a flat-plate consisting of strong polymeric UF membrane cast on the outside surface of a porous flat support medium. The flat surface is further mounted on a flat plastic plate with a spacer material. Figure 3 shows the configuration of the flat-plate membrane unit. Close visual examination of both membrane and fiber layers reveal that the fouling on the membranes surface consists mostly of a light brownish colored material. However, the darker black patches that were originally observed before the dissection of the membrane (Figure 2) could be more clearly linked to the organic fiber layers found below the membrane surface. SEM analysis of both the fouled and unfouled regions of the organic fiber layers were carried out for comparison. Figure 4a presents the SEM picture of an unfouled layer of the organic fiber layer. It can be seen that the organic fiber layer consists of an intricate weaving of individual fibers. Each individual fiber making up the fiber layer can be easily distinguished under the SEM and it can be seen that they are relatively clean. A clear SEM picture of a fouled area of the organic fiber layer is illustrated in Figure 4b. In this case, the SEM picture clearly shows debris has accumulated inside the organic fiber support layer.
of the inorganic compounds using XRD, it is believed that these inorganic elements will be in the form of salts, precipitate or metal oxides. The sulfur might possibly be present in the sulfate form. If this is true, gypsum may be present. Of course, other organic materials such as humic acids and bacteria may be present. It is most likely that the bacteria will make use of these inorganic and organic materials as nutrients for their growth, hence leading to biofouling. Investigation was further carried out on the membrane surfaces where fouling occurred. The SEM pictures showing the difference between the unfouled and the fouled membrane surfaces are shown in Figures 6a and 6b. From the SEM pictures, it appears that the membrane was constructed through a multi-weaving network of fibers to form a membrane with filtration capabilities. Even after the membrane was used for 9 months and was chemically washed monthly, it can be seen that the membranes surface were coated/spiked with a foulant material.
Figure 6. UF membrane showing (a) unfouled and (b) fouled surfaces
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Figure 4. SEM pictures of (a) unfouled fiber layer and (b) fouled fiber layer
Figure 5. EDX analysis of debris inside the fouled fiber layer Figure 7. EDX pattern of clean and fouled membrane surface
Further investigations to determine the chemical composition of the debris was carried out using the energy dispersive xray (EDX) technology. It was found that the debris material consisted of a mixture of different inorganic constituents, which included aluminium, silicon, sulfur, chlorine, calcium, titanium and iron. The details are illustrated in Figure 5. Although we were unable to evaluate the mineral structure
Additional analysis of the foulant was carried out using EDX. An EDX analysis was performed on the clean membranes surface as well as the fouled membranes surface. The EDX results are illustrated in Figure 7. The EDX pattern obtained from the clean membranes surface showed that the only possible inorganic element present was chlorine. This was expected prior to analysis, since the membrane was washed
using NaOCl to remove the organic, inorganic and biological deposits. Hence, some of the chlorine may have reacted with the membranes surface. However, in the case of the fouled membranes surface, although chlorine was also detected, traces of calcium were also detected as shown in Figure 7. It appears that the fouling on the membranes surface is also related to calcium deposits being present. The brownish coloration found on both the membranes surfaces and fiber layers in water treatment processes are usually associated with humic substances deposits (Fang et al 2004; Thomas, et al, 2000). In order to evaluate the presence of humic substances on the fouling membrane surface and fiber, a Perkin Elmer UV/Vis spectrometer (Lambda Bio20) was used to measure the spectrum from standard humic substances solutions at pH 4, 7 and 9 and compared to the extracted solution from the membrane and fiber layers. The samples were extracted from the membranes surface and the fiber layers using a NaOH solution. The extraction fluid was then input in the UV spectrometer for analysis. Similar declining profiles of the absorption curve for both standard humic substances solutions and extracted solution from the membrane and fiber layers was discovered. This evidence indicates that humic substances were present and that the fouling of the membrane and fibers could be partly attributed to the presence of these humic substances.
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and the organic fiber layer. SEM results of the organic fiber layer indicate the presence of debris, which has accumulated between the interlocking networks of fibers. The debris appears as patches ranging from brown to black in coloration in the organic fiber layers. EDX analysis further reveals that the debris consists of mineral elements such as aluminium, silicon, sulfur, chlorine, calcium, titanium and iron. It is believed that the accumulation of these inorganic minerals between the network of organic fibers may provide a strong potential nutrient source for bacteria. As for the membranes surface, fouling as seen under the SEM appears to consist of a coating whereas EDX analysis also revealed the presence of calcium, in the fouled regions. Tests for the presence of humic acid in both the fouled fiber layers as well as on the fouled membranes surface using a UV spectrometer gives results consistent with humic acids.
Reference
[1] Fang, H.J., Sun, D.D., Wu, M., Phay, W. and Tay, J.H., (2004) Removal of humic acid from ultrafiltration membrane surface using photocatalytic oxidation process IWA Membrane Conference, 4-10 June, Korea. [2] Thomas, M.H., Judd S.J. and Murrer, J. (2000) Fouling characteristics of membrane filtration in membrane biroreactors, In Membrane Technology in Water and Wastewater Treatment, Ed by Hills P., Northwest Water Ltd., UK, pp 158-165, Cambridge, UK: The Royal Society of Chemistry.
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Conclusion
It is clear that fouling occurs on both the membrane surface
Ultrasonication of Sludge for Anaerobic Digestion

Mao Taohong (PG03913936@ntu.edu.sg) Show Kuan-Yeow (ckyshow@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Anaerobic digestion is a commonly applied stabilization process for municipal wastewater sludge. Besides mass reduction, odor removal, and pathogen removal, the most attractive feature of anaerobic digestion is its ability to produce a net energy gain in the form of methane leading to a cost-effective operation. However, due to the rate-limiting stage of hydrolysis, anaerobic digestion is a rather slow process resulting in long retention times required and large digester volumes. As most substrates in sludge are enclosed within cell membranes, the cell-bound substrate has to be released in the hydrolysis phase before it can be utilized by methanogenic anaerobes. The demands for higher efficiency processes have prompted the need for pretreatment in order to improve substrate solubility and digestibility. Amongst many possible pretreatment methods, ultrasound treatment exhibits a greater potential for being environmentally and
economically sound. This paper describes the work on the use of ultrasound pretreatment for sludge disintegration to improve the subsequent anaerobic digestion. The effects of sonication density on sludge disintegration as well as on digester performance are presented and discussed.
Method
Secondary sludge samples were collected from a Water Reclamation Plant in Singapore treating municipal wastewaters. Sonication treatment of sludge was conducted with a sonicator equipped with a probe transducer (Autotune Series, Singma Chemical Co. U.S.A). The sludge was sonicated under low frequency of 20 kHz at different sonication densities of 0.18 W/ml, 033 W/ml and 0.52 W/ml
ENVIRONMENT
for one minute. The digestion of sludge was carried out using four upflow anaerobic digesters operated under identical conditions. Digester r1, serving as a control unit, was fed with untreated secondary sludge, while the other three digesters r2, r3 and r4 were fed with sludge sonicated at 0.18, 0.33 and 0.52 W/ml, respectively. The anaerobic digestion was performed in a temperature room at 35oC and operated under hydraulic retention times of 8 days.
The mean particle size for the untreated sludge decreased from 48 m to 31 m, 21 m and 18 m after sonication at 0.18 W/mL, 0.33 W/mL and 0.52 W/mL, respectively (Figure 2b). Soluble organics increase Table 1 presents the characteristics of untreated and sonicated sludge. The total Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and soluble COD (SCOD) results reveal that sonication exerted little impact on the total waste concentration, but it managed to convert a fraction of the particulate compounds into soluble form. Compared with the untreated sample, SCOD increased by 22%, 60% and 95% upon sonication at densities of 0.18 W/ml, 0.33 W/ml and 0.52 W/ml, respectively. Further evidence for soluble organics increase was the Total Organic Carbon (TOC), which increased from the original 130 mg/ L to 212 mg/L, 317 mg/L and 458 mg/L after sonication at respective densities. The significant enhancement in SCOD and TOC indicates that, sonication disruption of sludge flocs enabled the release of cellular organic substances into liquid phase, and transformed parts of the insoluble COD into the soluble forms amenable to further anaerobic digestion. Greater SCOD and TOC improvement was achieved at higher sonication densities, which corresponds to the sludge particle disruption discussed previously. This can be likely attributed to larger bubbles initiated by high sonication densities thereby disintegrating sludge more completely.
Table 1. Characteristics of untreated and sonicated sludge Digesters Sonication density, W/mL SCOD, mg/L COD, mg/L r1 Control 745 84 8590 670 130 21 r2 0.18 912 102 2642 1120 212 34 r3 0.33 1190 125 27090 970 317 25 r4 0.52
Results and Discussion

Sludge particle disruption The most intuitionistic evaluation of the disintegration effects of ultrasound can be obtained by microscopic analysis, which provided a visual appraisal of pretreatment. Figure 1 demonstrates the microscope images of secondary sludge before and after sonication treatment at density of 0.52 W/ ml for one minute. After sonication treatment, significant sludge disintegration was observed based on flocs breakage, boundary disappearance for solid-liquid phase and intracellular materials release to water. Figure 2a illustrates a quantitative comparison of size distributions of biosolids by volume after sonication at different sonication densities. Compared with the control (untreated sample), the peaks of curves representing sonicated sludge samples shifted towards the left, indicating substantial increase of smaller particles.
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Figure 1. Microscope images for secondary sludge when untreated (1) and sonicated at 0.52 W/mL (b)
TOC, mg/L
Biogas production Figure 3 demonstrates the accumulative biogas production of the digesters. During the digester start-up, there was an acclimatization period for all digesters in which no significant gas production was observed. After the acclimation period, gas production increased at a steady rate, indicating digesters reaching the steady-state period. The steady-state biogas production in ascending order was 380, 550, 1100 and 1160 mL/d for r1 to r4 (Table 2). Compared with the control digester r1, the biogas production increased by 45%, 189% and 205% for digesters r2, r3 and r4, respectively. The enhanced biogas production corresponded to the increased soluble organics and reduced particles established in sonicated sludge, which revealed that sonication treatment could efficiently improve the conversion efficiency of organics into biogas. Organics degradation
Figure 2. Effects of sonication on particle size distribution (a) and mean particle size (b)
Table 2 presents a summary of the performance data of the
Table 2. Digester performance at steady-state Digesters Sonication density, W/mL Gas production, mL/d COD removal, % TS removal, % r1 Control 380 85 72 r2 0.18 550 89 84 r3 0.33 100 91 89 r4 0.52 1160 94 92
Figure 3. Effects of ultrasound treatment on biogas production
Conclusion
digesters at steady-state conditions. The average COD removal achieved were 85%, 89%, 91% and 94%; and the average total solids (TS) removal were 72%, 84%, 89% and 92% for digesters fed with untreated sludge and sludge sonicated at 0.18 W/mL, 0.33 W/mL and 0.52 W/mL, respectively. The results show that the digesters fed with sonicated sludge indicated better performance in terms of organics degradation and removal of solids, which was in agreement with the biogas production. It is likely that sonication pretreatment could disintegrate the bound biosolids structures and release more readily degradable substances. This would facilitate the hydrolysis-acidogenesis biochemical reactions and result in a more efficient conversion environment for carbon utilization by the methanogenic microorganisms. Significant sludge disintegration by sonication was evidenced by remarkable reduction of biosolids particle size and increase of soluble organics. The subsequent anaerobic digestion indicates that digesters fed with sonicated sludge exhibit greater efficiency in organics removal and enhance biogas production over the digester fed with untreated sludge. The extents of sludge disintegration and digester improvement were in positive relationships with sonication densities within the range tested. The results demonstrated that sonication treatment is a suitable pretreatment method to improve the subsequent anaerobic digestion. Under appropriate operation, digesters fed with sonicated sludge were efficient and stable
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GEOTECHNICS
Hydrofracturing In-Situ Stress Measurements in Singapore Granite
Ashraf Mohamed Hefny (camhefny@ntu.edu.sg) Chua Heng Choon (cchuahc@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
A total of eight hydrofracturing tests in two vertical Boreholes at depths ranges between 60m and 120m below the ground surface were carried out in the Bukit Timah Granite. Results of the tests are summarized in this article.
actual tensile strength of the rock, and hence provide more accurate in-situ stress results. The direction of maximum horizontal stress is correlated with the local and regional geological setting. The Jurong Formation has been pushed towards and against the Bukit Timah Granite in NE direction. The tectonic stress in the NE direction was sufficiently great and caused intensive folding of the Jurong Formation in the NE-SW direction. The direction of the maximum horizontal stress is also consistent with that indicated by the World Stress Map (Stephansson, 1995). This map shows that the general direction of maximum horizontal stress in Sumatra and southern part of Peninsular Malaysia is NE~NNE, due to tectonic stresses developed at the convergent boundary between the Euroasian and the Australian-Indian plates. More detailed discussion can be found in Zhao et al. (2005).
Hydrofracturing test set-up

The hydrofracturing tests in Bukit Timah Granite followed the standard test-set-up and procedure (Haimson, 1995). The system includes: A pair of inflatable high pressure rubber straddle packers at interval of 1 m, an air driven high pressure pump with maximum pressure of 100 MPa and maximum flow rate of 10 l/min, high pressure pipes, a flow meter, a pressure transducer, a pressure metre, switches, an automatic recording system and an impression packer with an orientator. The procedures of hydrofracturing testing involved: sealing a section, hydrofracturing the rock, reopening the fracture, recording the key pressures and mapping the fracture orientation.
Conclusions
Eight hydrofracturing in-situ stress measurements were performed in the Bukit Timah Granite of Singapore in two vertical boreholes at depths ranges between 60m and 120m below the ground surface. Results of the stress measurements indicate the existence of high in-situ horizontal stresses in the Bukit Timah Granite. The ratio of v :h :H is approximately 1:2:3. The maximum horizontal in-situ stress is in the NNE-SSW direction. This direction of maximum horizontal stress is in correlation with the local and regional geological setting.

The in-situ stresses interpreted from the test data are summarized in Table 1. As can be seen from Table 1, there exist high horizontal stresses in the Bukit Timah Granite of Singapore. The ratio of v :h :H is approximately 1:2:3. The maximum horizontal in-situ stress is in the NNE-SSW direction. It is noted that in general the direction and magnitude of horizontal stresses, measured at different depths in the two boreholes are consistent. Test B2 in BH17 at the depth of 90m produced a low tensile strength, and hence led to significantly large horizontal stresses. It has been observed that at this test location the reopening pressure in the re-pressurization cycles is equal to the breakdown pressure. This suggests that the cracks at this test location are pre-existing cracks and not induced by the test. Therefore, results of this test are not considered during drawing the conclusions. The laboratory determined tensile strength is consistently higher than that derived from hydrofracturing in-situ tests. This is attributed to the selection of perfect specimens of small size for the laboratory test. It is believed that the results from the in situ tests reflect the
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References
[1] Haimson, B.C. (1995). The Hydrolic Fracturing Method of Stress Measurement: Theory and Practice. Comprehensive Rock Engineering, Editor-in-Chief: Hudson, J.A., vol. 3, pp. 395412. [2] Stephansson (1995). Rock Stress in the Fennoscandian Shield. Comprehensive Rock Engineering, Editor-in-Chief: Hudson, J.A., vol. 3, pp. 445-459. [3] Zhao, J., Hefny, A.M., Zhou, Y.X. (2005). Hydrofracturing in situ stress measurements in Singapore. International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences, vol. 42, pp. 577-583.
Table 1. Summary of derived in situ stresses Borehole BH8 BH8 BH8 BH8 BH17 BH17 BH17 BH17 Test No. A1 A2 A3 A4 Average B1 B2 B3 B4 Average 65 90 109 120 Depth (m) 62 85 94 113 v (MPa) 1.59 2.18 2.38 2.90 2.26 1.66 2.32 2.80 3.07 2.51 h (MPa) 3.30 4.69 4.11 6.19 4.57 4.00 8.04 5.43 3.94 4.46 H (MPa), by Thf 4.28 8.00 5.75 10.24 7.07 6.17 15.39 9.09 6.63 7.30 H (MPa), by Tlab 7.67 14.07 11.76 14.76 12.04 7.84 22.25 10.88 8.65 9.12 Direction of H 039 017 006 057 018 000 011 017 007 008
PerformanceBased Acceptance Criteria for Quality Control of Reclaimed Sandfill

Chang Ming-Fang (cmfchang@ntu.edu.sg) Huang YongQing (HUAN0033@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Sandfill created rapidly by hydraulic filling or other placement methods at reclaimed sites is usually loosely packed or heterogeneous and often requires quality verification using, for example, the cone penetration test (CPT). One often faces difficulty in the specification of the required minimum cone resistance (qc). Current practice of quality control of sandfill relies heavily on past experience of similar developments. An effective acceptance criterion would require specific values of penetration resistance that can be related directly to foundation performance, such as settlement. To improve the current practice, one needs to evaluate the suitability of qc as a measurement of compressibility by making reference to performance of prototype foundations or plates in the plate load test. An established framework of settlement analysis, such as that of Schmertmann et al. (1978), can be adopted for the development of settlement-based acceptance criteria using suitable field data, such as those collected at the Changi East Reclamation site in Singapore.
Test Sequence stage1 stage2 stage3 stage4 stage5
Table 1: Reload Modulus from PLTs Elevation (m) 11.2~12.2 10.80 8.80 6.6~6.8 5.50 Eoc (MPa) Lot 1 51.29 77.27 54.95 62.97 60.05 Lot 2 62.97 33.45 62.75 53.95 64.10 Lot 3 60.60 17.69 27.82 15.94 20.50
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Data at Changi East reclamation site

The sandfill investigated was initially used as a temporary surcharge. A step-by-step removal of the sandfill allowed plate load tests to be carried out at different depths thus providing an opportunity for the investigation of the compressibility of sand and load-settlement response of model footing at various levels. The sand of marine origin was relatively clean with a carbonate content of 4 and 16 %. The grain size distribution was found to vary among three test lots, each measured 2 m x 2 m, with the coefficient of uniformity Cu generally between 2 and 6 for the sand in Lots 1 and 2 and around 2.9 for the sand in Lot 3. It is classified as SP (poorly graded sand) based on the Unified Soil Classification System. The sand in Lot 1 and Lot 2, placed by the sub-aerial hydraulic pumping, was generally medium dense to very dense and that in Lot 3, formed by direct dumping from trucks, was generally very loose to loose. Both the plate load test (PLT) and the cone penetration test (CPT) were carried out using recommended standard test procedures. From the pressure-settlement curve obtained in the PLT, the reload elastic modulus Eoc was calculated from the unloadreload loop where the average vertical strain was generally within 0.1% to 0.5%. This range of vertical strain is similar to the strain level in sand presented beneath conventional foundations under serviceability state, which is typically 0.1% in overconsolidated sand and 0.25% in normally consolidated
Figure 1: Typical qc Profiles
sand (Baldi et al. 1988; Burland, 1989). Table 1 summarizes the values of Eoc deduced from PLTs in three test lots. The modulus values are found to be higher for the hydraulically filled sand in Lot 1 and Lot 2, than for the directly dumped sand in Lot 3. Figure 1 shows typical qc profiles in Lots 1, 2, and 3. For the surcharge sandfill in Lots 1 and 2, which was placed hydraulically above water, the qc value is generally between 15 MPa to 25 MPa. In contrast, for the sandfill that was placed above the mean sea level by direct dumping in Lot 3, the qc value is much lower, typically at 2 to 3 MPa, except for the thin platform layers at the top of each placement lift.
Schmertmanns framework of analysis

Among the various methods for settlement analysis of footings in sand, Schmertmanns method (Schmertmann, 1970; Schmertmann et al., 1978) is by far the most common. The proposed equation for calculating the settlement (s) is (1) where CD is the depth correction factor, Cc is the creep factor, q is the net increase in pressure at foundation level, B is the foundation width or diameter, h is the thickness of each layer, and Iz is the strain influence factor. The assumed distributions
GEOTECHNICS
Development of acceptance criteria

Using the present proposed framework of analysis, the elastic modulus Es that prevails in the field can be back-calculated from the results of PLTs and compared with the corresponding qc value. The Es/qc ratio generally ranges from 2.2 to 4.8 and averages around 4 for the medium dense to very dense sand with RD 50% in Lots 1 and 2. For the loose to medium dense sand with RD < 50% in Lot 3, the ratio varies widely and bears no specific relation with the relative density. Interestingly, the back-calculated Es/qc ratio is comparable to the corresponding Eoc/qc ratio. In developing suitable acceptance criteria, Schmertmanns proposed distributions of normalized vertical strain were used, with n = 0.04 considered for hydraulically filled sand and both n = 0.1 and n = 0.3 considered for loose or normally consolidated sand. A modulus coefficient of 4 was chosen for hydraulically filled sand, which is usually considered to be overconsolidated, for the axis-symmetrical (L/B=1) condition, and 5.6 for the plain strain (L/B=10) condition. For normally consolidated or dynamically densified sand, =2.5 and =3.5, respectively, were chosen for axis-symmetrical and plain strain conditions, respectively, following the proposals of Schmertmann et al. (1978). An equivalent qc value, or q* calculated by taking the weighed average of c, individual qc values in various sub-layers, is recommended. Figure 3 shows design charts developed based on the proposed acceptance criteria for a commonly accepted allowable settlement of 25 mm for shallow foundations resting on hydraulically reclaimed sand fill for (a) L/B =1 and (b) L/B =10 cases. Fig. 4 shows similar charts for square foundations resting on dynamically densified or normally consolidated sand fill, with n = 0.1 for less conservative and n = 0.3 for more conservative applications. As an example, we assume that a 3m x 3m footing is to be built on the surface of a marine sandfill. The net vertical pressure is expected to be 300 kPa, and the settlement is to be restricted to 25 mm. Taking Cc= CD =1 and of 4 for hydraulically placed sandfill and 2.5 for dynamically densified sandfill, the required qc*value would be 7.7 MPa and 14.7% 25 MPa, respectively based on Figs. 3 and 4.
Figure 2. Schmertmanns Distributions of Iz
of Iz for footings with two different length-to-diameter (L/B) ratios are as shown in Fig. 2, with the maximum value Izp expressed as a function of the net applied pressure q and vp, the effective vertical stress at the depth where Izp occurs. Schmertmann et al. (1978) recommended that the field modulus E can be estimated from qc based on the following correlation factors: = E/qc of 2.5 for square footings and 3.5 for the plane strain condition. To verify the suitability of Schmertmanns proposed normalized strain distributions, a simplified elastic analysis was carried out by assuming that the soil is a homogeneous, isotropic and linearly elastic, and the footing is rigid. Vertical strain distributions calculated using the FEM indicates that Iz is relatively unaffected by the variation of q and Poissons ratio . The value of Iz at ground surface Izo is around 0.2 to 0.3. The maximum value Izp is typically between 0.4 and 0.5 occurring consistently about a depth of around 0.5B. The maximum influence depth zm which increases gradually with L/B and ceases to increase as L/B 10 is about 5B. To simulate the nonlinear stress-strain relationship of soils and to attain a close fitting of the complete pressure-settlement curve, one needs to adopt a variable Izp using a more generalized equation as follows: (2) where n is the curve fitting parameter. Analyses based on PLT and CPT data collected at Changi East site indicated that n fluctuated between 0.018 and 0.047 with an average of 0.04 for the medium to very dense sand (RD 50%) in Lots 1 and 2. For the loose sand present in Lot 3, the matching value of n ranged widely from 0.27 to 0.39, with a typical value of around 0.3. It is suggested that appropriate modifications be made on Schmertamnns distributions of normalized axial strain as follows: (a) using Izo = 0.2 at z = 0; (b) using Eq. (2) in the calculation of Izp, where n = 0.04 is recommended for overconsolidated sand with RD 50% and n = 0.3 for normally consolidated with RD < 50%; and (c) setting zm = 2.5 (1+log(L/B))B.
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Figure 3. Proposed Acceptance Criteria for Hydraulically Placed Sandfill
quality control have been developed to facilitate the selection of the required minimum equivalent qc value in both hydraulically placed sandfill and dynamically densified sandfill for a specified allowable settlement of foundations.
References
[1] Baldi, G., Bellotti, R., Ghionna, V. N. and Jamiolkowski, M. 1988. Stiffness of sand from CPT, SPT and DMT A critical review. Proc. of ICE Geotechnology Conference on Penetration Testing, Birmingham, 299-305. [2] Burland, J. 1989. The 9th Bjerrum memorial lecture: Small is beautiful, the stiffness of soils at small strain, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 26, 499-516. [3] Schmertmann, J. H. 1970. Static cone to compute static settlement over sand. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundation Division, ASCE, 96 (SM3), 1011-1043. [4] Schmertmann, J. H., Hartman, J. P. and Brown, P. R. 1978. Improved strain influence factor diagrams. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Division, 104 (GT8), 11311135.
Figure 4: Proposed Acceptance Criteria for Direct Dumped or Dynamically Densified Sandfill
Conclusions
Based on a comprehensive field investigation program comprising plate load tests and cone penetration tests and Schmertmanns framework of settlement analysis of shallow foundation, modified distributions of normalized vertical strain were proposed to produce an improved matching pressuresettlement curve for a footing. Acceptance criteria for fill
2006
44
Soil Improvement for Tree Stability

Harianto Rahardjo (chrahardjo@ntu.edu.sg) Leong Eng Choon (cecleong@ntu.edu.sg) I Gde Budi Indrawan (igbindrawan@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Trees are an important part of Singapores urban environment and provide numerous benefits to human life. However, uprooted trees in an urban environment can cause damages to properties and infrastructures and injury or loss of lives. There are several factors that contribute to tree failures, such as decaying of tree trunk, wind loading, and root wedging. The engineering properties of soil as a medium for tree growth also play an important role in tree stability. Several cases of tree failures have been associated with low soil strength. Fine-grained soils have commonly been used for growing trees. Recently, mixing of fine-grained and coarse-grained soils has been considered to be an alternative method for increasing soil strength. The increase in strength is resulted from the contact between the coarse-grained materials. Furthermore, the pores developed between the coarse-grained materials are filled with the fine-grained soils to retain moisture and nutrients. These pores encourage the tree roots to penetrate deeper and hence enhance the stability of the tree root and soil system. The main objectives of this study are to study mechanisms that
lead to the uprooting of trees in Singapore, to study the engineering characteristics of top soils in Singapore in relation to the capacity of the soils to support tree stability, and to improve engineering properties of top soils in Singapore for stability of tree by mixing top soils with other materials such as granite chips. For this purpose, the top soils are mixed with granite chips in percentages of 50% granite chips to 50% top soils and 80% granite chips to 20% top soils based on dry mass.
Figure 1 shows a simplified wind-tree-soil interaction model. The controlling factors of tree failures were analyzed based on three main modes of tree failure: shear failures of soil-root system, tensile failure of roots, and slippage of roots. In the preliminary assessment, it was assumed that no coupling mode of failure is present. In all likelihood, tree failure involves a coupling of the three modes of failure and the contribution of each mode to tree failure will be difficult to ascertain without experimental study. Therefore laboratory and field tests are currently in progress. Seasonal variations of matric suctions, which contribute to soil
GEOTECHNICS
Figure 1. A theoretical model for tree stability Figure 5. (a) The excavated planting holes; (b) Soil mixing; (c) Soil compaction; (d) Tree planting.
Figure 2. Matric suction readings of tensiometers installed around a tree Figure 6. Soil arrangement for pull-out tests
The most optimum soil mixture obtained from the laboratory tests will be verified in the field by conducting pull-out tests on trees. For the pull-out tests, each tree was planted in a planting hole of 2.5 m x 2.5 m (area) x 1 m (depth). The soils were placed in the planting holes and compacted to a minimum of 90% relative compaction as per local practice.
Figure 3. (a) Granite chips; (b) Top soils
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Currently, twenty planted young Rain trees are left to grow for several months, after which the pull-out tests will be conducted. Figure 5 and Figure 6 show preparation and layout of the test site, respectively.
Summary
Several theoretical modeling and laboratory tests are currently being conducted to study mechanisms that lead to the uprooting of trees in Singapore and to study the engineering properties of the top soil-granite chip mixtures. Results obtained from the theoretical modeling and the laboratory tests will be verified in the field by conducting pull-out tests on the planted trees. From this study, it is expected that engineering properties of the top soils in Singapore can be improved to support tree stability.
Figure 4. Failed Specimen in a triaxial test
shear strength, have been measured using tensiometers installed around trees (Figure 2). Laboratory tests including investigation of soil index properties, hydraulic properties, and shear strength have been conducted to obtain the most optimum soil mixture of top soils and granite chips. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show photographs of granite chips and top soils used in this study and the triaxial test set-up for shear strength measurement, respectively.
Acknowledgement
The study is funded by a research grant from National Park Board-Nanyang Technological University Joint R & D. Assistance from Mr. Heng Hiang Kim, Mr. Christopher Chia, Mr. Tan Hiap Guan, and Ms. Binu Stanley of the Geotechnical Laboratory is acknowledged.
Numerical Study on Crack Propagation and Shear Behavior of Jointed Rock Mass
Zhao Zhiye (czzhao@ntu.edu.sg) Zhang Houquan (pg11191203@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Rock mass is full of discontinuous fractures or joints with different azimuth angles. A comprehensive study on the breakage and shear behavior of intermittent rock joints can provide a good understanding on local and general rock stability, leading to improved analysis and design of underground structures. Many experimental and theoretical studies have been carried out over the years on the failure process of rock mass with intermittent joints under shear loading. In general, rock fails in a tensile mode for overlapping joints and in a mixed mode for non-overlapping joints. The failure patterns of rock mass are mainly controlled by the joint separation while the shear strength of jointed rock depends mostly on the failure pattern, and the joint separation is an important geometrical parameter on the shear resistance of jointed rock (Gehle and Kutter, 2003). Though the general behavior of rock specimens containing intermittent joints under shear loading has been extensively investigated, the detailed failure mechanism, from fracture initiation, fracture propagation, coalescence to failure is still short of reasonable theoretical explanation, especially for internal fractures which are hardly accessible to observation. This paper aims to provide an insight on the rock fracture process through numerical simulations.
Table 1. Mechanical and geometrical properties Parameter Homogeneity index (m) Elastic modulus (E0) Compressive strength (c) Poissons ratio () Friction angle () Edge-notched joint length (b) Imbedded joint length (d) Imbedded Joint angle () Value 4 60,000 (MPa) 200 (MPa) 0.25 30 10 (mm) 16 (mm) -45
tension or shear mode. The detailed descriptions of RFPA2D model can be found in the paper by Tang (1997).
2006
Crack Propagation of Jointed Rock

Figure 2 visually depicts the evolution of minimum principal stress field during the course of fracture progress where bright spots indicate smaller minimum principal stress. Figure 3 shows the relationship between shear load, associated damaged element count and loading step. The points (A-F) in Figure 3 correspond to the loading step in Figure 2.
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Model Setup
This numerical study is based on the Rock Failure Process Analysis code (RFPA2D) developed at the Center for Rock Instability and Seismicity Research of Northeastern University, China. The numerical model is shown in Figure 1. The geometry of the model is 100 mm100 mm in size and it is discretized into 200200=40,000 elements. On account of the heterogeneity of rock material, the elemental local mechanical parameters such as the failure strength c and elastic modulus E0 (as listed in Table 1) are assumed to follow a Weibull distribution. To simulate the shear box, two rectangle strips are added around the specimen with elastic modulus of 4105 MPa and failure strength of 2103 MPa, which are much larger than the values of rock specimen so that they dont fail and exert additional stress on the boundary. The bottom and right boundary of the specimen are fixed so as not to move in the vertical and horizontal directions. A load P which has an equivalent distributed pressure of 0.5 MPa is applied in the vertical direction on the top surface and an increasing horizontal displacement Q at 0.002 mm/ step is loaded on the left surface to simulate shear slip. Element failure is judged by a Coulomb criterion with a tension-cut-off; thus, the element may be damaged either in
Figure 1. Numerical model
It can be seen from Figure 2 that cracks are much easier to propagate through the brighter place in the stress field. It is much easier to generate tensile damage than shear damage with smaller minimum principal stress near the crack tip for rock-like materials. Wing cracks firstly initiate from the tip of the imbedded joints, not from the tip of edge-notched joints, due to the strong interaction between joints. The shear load reaches SR0 (point A in Figure 3) at the load step 29.
GEOTECHNICS
the cracks grow into rock bridges and the release of tensile stress in the middle rock bridge develops wing cracks, tensile stress is transferred to the field of edge rock bridges. Tensile cracks initiate from the tips of two edge-notched joints actively from step 32 and grow into the deep part of bridged rock towards another distant joint. It can be observed from Figure 3 that there is a substantial increase of damage elements around the loading step 40. At load step 114, the shear load reaches Point E, some joints enter into the closing stage. A sudden loss of shear load is linked with a cracking incident of a large number of elements, especially before the severe damage of inner configuration of rock specimen. After step 114, shear resistance keeps a higher value by the selfsupport effect of shear zone. From the above observations, we can conclude that the tensile damage is always playing an important role during the whole fracture process.
Conclusions
The shear behaviors of a rock specimen containing four joints with different joint azimuth angles have been investigated through a direct shear test using RFPA2D code. The whole shear failure process is visually represented and the failure pattern obtained is in reasonable accordance with other experimental results. In general, two phases of shearing can be identified. Wing cracks firstly initiate from the tips of pre-existing joints with an initiation angle, and then propagate towards another joint through rock bridge. The second phase of shearing is characterized by friction process and volume increase in shear zone.
Figure 2. Rock Fracture process.
47
Figure 3. The relationship between shear load, damaged element counts and loading step.
References
2006
At this loading level, the deformation behavior of rock specimen under shear loading deviates from linearly elastic one to a nonlinear one. In general, most damage elements occur at the tip of the edge-notched joints. It confirms the experimental results by Gehle and Kutter (2003) that crack initiation is for the most part audible, but not always visible with the naked eye. When
[1] Gehle C, and Kutter HK. (2003). Breakage and shear behavior of intermittent rock joints. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 40: 687-700. [2] Tang CA. (1997). Numerical simulation on progressive failure leading to collapse and associated seismicity. Int. J. Rock Mech. and Min. Sci., 34: 249-261.
MARITIME STUDIES
A Measurement and Comparison of Cost Competitiveness of Container Ports in Southeast Asia
LAM Siu Lee, Jasmine (sllam@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Terminal users face a variety of costs associated with the container terminal and those that are harder to quantify should not be ignored for they might represent a larger component of the overall costs associated with using a particular terminal. Similarly, the competitive advantage of a container terminal operator goes beyond the elements that can be quantified. The study aims to examine the competitive advantage, as measured by cost competitiveness, enjoyed by the four selected terminal operators in Singapore, Port Klang (which can be divided into Northport and Westport) and Tanjung Pelepas located along the Straits of Malacca. The study also aims to determine the extent of this advantage and to analyse its impact on the development of competition between the selected pairs of container terminal operators from the supply side.
quantitative factors that are relevant and important to the terminal user. Through the substitution of container throughput and financial performance data for each pair of container terminal operators into the functions of TO1 and TO2 and solving these equations will yield solution values for a, b, c1 and c2.
Findings and Discussions

The results suggest that the terminal operators in Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas are able to improve their cost advantage significantly while at the same time keep prices competitive. The Malaysian terminal operators have also been expending much effort to improve service connectivity in a bid to attract more customers. The increasingly cost competitive operators in Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas are able to close the gap with PSA Corporation in Singapore in the overall costs of using their terminal facilities although PSAC continues to enjoy a dominant share of the container-handling market in the region. The fact that terminal users continue to value those service aspects that are harder to quantify including responsiveness, reliability, consistency and reputation can be seen in the higher price-cost ratios enjoyed by PSAC over the other terminal operators. This enables PSAC to continue to charge a higher premium for the services provided at its terminals in Singapore. However, the results also reflect a declining trend in the price-cost ratio of PSAC while those of the Malaysian operators are found to be increasing. As a whole, the gap in price-cost ratios between Singapore and the Malaysian container terminal operators has narrowed. Comparison of the cost ratios between the various terminal operators suggests that incumbency for the terminal operator and considerable amount of switching costs for the terminal user play a significant role in enabling PSAC to retain its position as the premier hub port in the region even though the overall costs of calling at PSAC become more expensive compared to Tanjung Pelepas, Northport and Westport. Conclusion As container terminal operators sought to sustain long-term competitiveness by creating and drawing upon their respective competitive advantages, the most desirable strategies are those that sustain the expansion and revitalisation of demand for their services. The author would like to highlight the tremendous amount of opportunities available, in both vertical and horizontal dimensions, to the container terminal operators to advance and capitalise on their competitive advantages beyond aggressive price competition.
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Research Methodology
Simultaneous quantity-setting model is used to derive the overall costs of using the terminal. The equilibrium quantity of TEUs handled and profits earned by Terminal Operator 1 (TO1) and Terminal Operator 2 (TO2) are derived as follows: &
&
where 1 denotes the share of transhipment containers handled by TO2 for 1 = [0,1]. 2 denotes the share of transhipment containers handled by TO1 for 2 = [0,1]. a and b are coefficients that have to be estimated. c1 and c2 denote the overall costs per TEU of supplying the service by TO1 and TO2 respectively. In the model, c1 and c2 can be seen to epitomise the overall competitive advantage of the container terminal operator because the overall costs per TEU of supplying the services would have to take into account both qualitative and
MARITIME STUDIES
STRUCTURES
Allowable Free Span of Rigid Risers
Ong Yean Chau (ON0001AU@ntu.edu.sg) Gho Wie Min (cwmgho@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
A rigid riser is a pipe attached to the leg or brace of an offshore steel jacket by means of mechanical clamps. The riser allows the transition of piping elements at the topside location of the offshore platform with the expansion loop joining the pipeline on the seabed floor. It is a vital part of the offshore pipeline system. The riser pipe between the mechanical clamps is exposed to the seawater environment and subjected to hydrodynamic forces. The wave and current actions on the riser span also create a phenomenon of vortex induced vibrations (VIV) which cause potential adverse impact of the integrity of the riser pipe.
Table 1.1. Pipe parameters and environmental conditions Pipe Diameter Pipe Wall Thickness Corrosion Allowance Corrosion Coating Thickness Wave Height Wave Period Current Velocity at 5 m above Seabed 273.1 mm 25.4 mm 50% WT 12.0 mm 15.2 m 12.0 s 0.8 m/s
Discussion
Total Modal Damping Ratio The stability parameter currently used to represent the effects of damping for a given modal shape is a function of the pipeline effective mass, seawater density, pipe outer diameter and the total modal damping ratio of system. For the case of a rigid riser span, the rigid riser boundary is usually protected by a layer of neoprene or ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) inside a mechanical clamp. By assuming that the layer of neoprene or EPDM provides no damping effect on the system, the analysis would yield the most conservative rigid riser span length. In reality, the layer of coatings does impose damping effect on the system. As shown in Figures 1.2 and 1.3, the effect of damping on the span lengths can be substantial. Despite the fact that the stability parameter for the pipe and the modal damping ratio have a linear relationship, the resulting riser span and modal damping ratio do not exhibit any linearity until the modal damping ratio is greater than 0.025 or the pipe span length is greater than 12m. Relative Soil Parameter () and Boundary Conditions To reflect the actual boundary conditions that the pipeline is experiencing on the seabed, a host of parameters is determined in the analysis which includes the boundary condition coefficients, the relative soil parameter () and the effective span length as a ratio with respect to actual free span length (Leff/L). Some of these parameters require the use of engineering judgment in the analyses. Being primarily designed for use as pipeline span analysis on seabed, almost all the boundary condition parameters involve the classification of soil. For rigid risers, no guidance was available to determine the allowable span utilizing the information in the codes. Particularly, the relative soil parameter, , which determines the ratio of the effective span length relative to the actual span length, is not readily available in the analyses for rigid riser allowable spans. In
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Figure 1.1. Rigid Riser attached to Steel Jacket
Recent developments in pipeline span analysis based on the MULTISPAN Project (Mork et al, 1997) provide new design guidelines for free spanning pipelines on the seabed. However, the development of guidelines for rigid riser allowable spans due to VIV has largely been lacking. Application of developments from pipeline span analysis directly to riser span analysis may be inappropriate in view that the load application and the boundary condition between the seabed pipeline and the riser are not identical. The motivation for the current study is to determine if the recent DNV code, namely DNV-RP-F105 [2002], as well as its predecessor, DNV Guideline No. 14 [1998], can suitably be applied in the computation of the allowable span length for rigid risers.
Data for analysis

The following pipe parameters and environmental conditions are considered.
In-line Riser Span VIV In the event that the riser span is allowed to vibrate, the impact of these vibrations on the mechanical riser clamps should not be underestimated. The deflection at the centre of the rigid riser span caused by the in-line VIV vibrations creates additional stresses which are normally not accounted for in the design of mechanical riser clamps. By assuming pinned-fixed boundary condition between a 10m long rigid riser span, the resulting lateral force acting on the mechanical riser clamp can be 20% of the lateral forces due to the platform deflections and hydrodynamic forces. This additional lateral force must be considered in the design of mechanical riser clamps to prevent damage on its structural components.
Figure 1.2. Stability Parameter vs Modal Damping
Conclusion
The development of guidelines for the determination of rigid riser allowable spans has largely been lacking. Further research and experimental studies have to be carried out to evaluate the effects of damping, relative soil parameters and pipe span boundary conditions when a pipeline span analysis is applied in the context of a rigid riser span.
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References
Figure 1.3. Riser Span Length vs Modal Damping
50
order to highlight the impact of relative soil parameter on the rigid riser allowable span length, the following analyses are performed and the results are presented in the table below.
Table 1.2. Comparison of boundary conditions and effect on effective span length Boundary Type Loose Sand Dense Sand Very Soft Clay Very Hard Clay Vertical Dynamic Stiffness 10.9 21.7 0.8 16.3 Relative Soil Parameter, 3.79 4.09 2.67 3.97 Effective Span Length Ratio 1.33 1.28 1.64 1.30
[1] Det Norske Veritas Recommended Practice RP-F105 (2002), Free Spanning Pipelines, Norway [2] Det Norske Veritas, Guidelines No. 14 (1998), Free Spanning Pipelines, Norway [3] Mork, K.J., Vitali, L. & Verley, R., (1997). The MULTISPAN Project: Design Guideline for Free Spanning Pipelines, Proc. 1997, OMAE.
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An Experimental Study on Fatigue Behaviour of Partially Overlapped Tubular K-Joint

Lee Chi King (ccklee @ntu.edu.sg) Lie Seng Tjhen (cstlie@ntu.edu.sg) Chiew Sing Ping (cspchiew @ntu.edu.sg) Sopha Thong (soph0001@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Due to the ease of fabrication and the existence of many direct calculation methods to assess the joint capacity, simple tubular T, Y and non-overlap K joints are widely used connection type for the construction of offshore steel jackets. When compared with a K-joints with gap, a partially overlap K-joints may have a higher fabrication costs due to the complex end profile of the overlap brace. However, partially overlap K-joint has a higher residual capacity as a result of its optimized load transfer pattern. In fact, recently, in a case study comparing the costs of three Kjoints design options [1], it was found that after having considered the material and fabrication costs, an overlap joint is the cheapest option, with the fabrication cost actually being significantly cheaper than that of the alternative canned gap joint. However, in the past, very few research works were carried out to study the fatigue behaviour of partially overlap circular hollow section (CHS) K-joints and virtually no information regarding the fatigue strength of overlapped CHS K-joints is available. The main objective of this study is to investigate the stress concentration factor (SCF) and the stress intensity factor (SIF) distributions for a partially overlapped CHS K-joint under cyclic loadings.
Figure 1. Three actuators of test rig
Strain gauge locations

Strain gauges were placed around the entire chord/through brace intersection as shown in Figure 2. At each spot, a pair of strain gauges were used to measure the distribution of the strain components perpendicular to the weld toe. In addition, in order to detect any secondary bending moment caused by loading eccentricity and joint flexibility, a pair of strain gauges were also installed at two cross-sections along the through brace with a distance equal three times of the diameter of the brace.
Table 1. Material properties of the specimen Members Chord Brace Yield strength 352 MPa 406 MPa Tensile strength 493 MPa 502 MPa Elongation (%) 32.3 24.4
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Test rig and loading system

The orange test rig shown in Figure 1 was used to test a partially overlap CHS K-joint subjected to axial (AX), in-plane bending (IPB), out-of-plane bending (OPB) and the combination of these three basic load cases. The rig is capable of applying static loading on a joint specimen to determine the hot spot stress (HSS) distributions, as well as cyclic loading. Two 250kN and one 150kN capacity servo-hydraulic actuators were installed to apply the three basic load cases. The loads were applied along the three mutually perpendicular axes.
Test specimen
The specimen was made up from CHS of structural steel pipes to API 5L Grade B specifications for the chord and S355 for the braces. The material properties of these pipes are shown in Tables 1. The intersecting profile of the braces was constructed according to the AWS specifications and ultrasonic check was conducted to ensure the quality of the welding. The specimen was installed by fixing the two ends of the chord and the overlapping brace. The external loads were applied at the end of the through brace.
Figure 2. Strain gauge location
Static test procedure

A series of load cases consisting of AX, IPB, OPB loadings and arbitrary combinations of them were chosen and tested. The specimen was first subjected to an incremental static load on one axis, and the strains were checked against linearity and zero drift to indicate shakedown of residual stress. Before starting the actual tests, the applied loads on each actuator were preprogrammed. The actuators were then ramped to the predetermined loads. The strain gauge readings were eventually recorded by special software for further calculation.
HSS in chord member curve (C)
Static test results

After strain gauges values were recorded, the hot spot strain perpendicular and parallel to the weld toe, () and (//), were obtained by the linear extrapolation method. The strain concentration factor (SNCF) was calculated as SNCF = /n (1)
HSS in through brace curve (C) Figure 3. HSS distributions
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where n is the nominal strain obtained from the readings of the four strain gauges attached along the through brace member. The stress concentration factor (SCF) was calculated as SCF = SNCF(1+///)/(1-2) where is the Poissons ratio of the material. The HSS distributions on the chord and braces of the specimen subjected to combined loads: AX and IPB loads are plotted in Figures 3. It can be seen that peak HSS occurred along the curve C on the through brace. (2)
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Figure 4. Probes distributed along weld toe
Fatigue test investigation

The alternating current potential drop (ACPD) technique [2] was used to monitor the growth of surface crack at expected crack growth location. 32 ACPD probes were equally spaced every 10mm around curve C, along the weld toe of the through brace near the heel crown of the joint where the peak HSS was detected during the static test (Figure 4). The fatigue crack development shape was recorded using a scan interval of 180 cycles. The test and scanning was stopped automatically when the crack had penetrated the through brace thickness.
Test conditions and applied loading

The overlapped tubular K-joint was tested in air under a sinusoidal constant amplitude loading until failure with load frequency of 0.2 Hz throughout the test. The cyclic loading pattern applied is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Cyclic load applied to specimen
Fatigue test results

The ACPD crack development plot obtained is shown in
Figure 6. The crack was initiated at the heel of the through brace and propagated towards to saddle symmetrically. However, as the crack propagated, it no longer remained symmetric. Figure 7 shows the surface cracks at the heel crown of the through brace, which has not been reported in previous studies. In order to check the actual crack shapes, the tested joint was spilt into two parts along the crack surface (Figure 8). It can be seen that from the ACPD
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Figure 6. ACPD crack profile Figure 8. Opened crack surface
Figure 7. Surface crack
reading and the actual crack surface, the peak HSS position is corresponding to the deepest position of the crack. Figure 9 shows the plot of the design S-N curve [3] for a thickness of 19mm together with the fatigue life of this specimen. It is observed that the S-N curve is only marginally conservative when predicting the life of the joint.
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Figure 9. S-N curves
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References
[1] Tizani, W.M.K., Yusurf, K.O., Davies, G. and Smith, N. J. (1996), A knowledge based system to support joint fabrication decision making at the design stage- case study for CHS trusses, Proceeding of the 7 th International Symposium of Tubular Structures, Hungary, pp. 483-489. [2] Dover, W. D., Dharmavasan, S., Brenan, F.P., and Marsh, K. J. (1995), Fatigue crack growth in offshore structures. Engineering Materials Advisory Services (EMAS) Ltd., Chamelon Press, London. [3] Zhao, X. L., Herion, S., Packer, J. A., Puthli, R.,Sedlacek, G., Wardenier, J., Weynand, K., van Wingerde, A., and Yeomans, N. (2000), Design guide for circular and rectangular hollow section joints under fatigue loading, CIDECT, TUV.
Conclusions
A fatigue test was carried out to investigate the behavior of a partially overlap K-joint under combined AX and IPB loadings. Test results indicated that peak HSS occurred at the brace weld toe near the heel crown of the intersection of the through brace and the chord. It should be pointed out that such test results were not observed before in any previous study of CHS tubular joints. The fatigue test results demonstrated that the S-N curve proposed in the current codes is marginally conservative when predicting life of partially overlapped tubular K-joint.
Failure Assessment Diagram of Damaged Square Hollow Section T-joints

Lie S.T. (cstlie@ntu.edu.sg) Gho W.M. (cwmgho@ntu.edu.sg) Yang Z.M. (zmyang@pmail.ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Generally, the static strength of any tubular structure is the main performance criteria at the design stage. However, all offshore structures are continuously subjected to severe cyclic loading conditions. Due to these conditions, fatigue cracks frequently initiate and develop resulting in damage. It has been found that this fatigue damage is the most frequent single cause of repairs, representing 25% of all repairs to steel platforms found in the North Sea. Cracks reduce the structural strength capacity. It is therefore critical that inspection strategies are improved so that these cracks can be detected as early as possible. This will enable engineers to make rational repair/no-repair decisions. The potential economic consequence of this critical decision for structures can be very great. There has, of course, been considerable effort in this research field for the past decades, resulting in several theories describing the behaviour of such damaged structures. The most widespread and successful assessment approach is the failure assessment diagram (FAD) approach. Based on this approach, API RP579 [1], BS7910 [2] and R6 [3] give guidance for assessing the acceptability of defects in welded structures. Although these codes and standards provide guidance in the form of detailed procedures for fatigue and fracture assessments, these are intended for general applications and do not necessarily give optimal solutions for all types of structures, such as cracked tubular joints.
Figure 1. FAD philosophy for the assessment of flawed structure
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Validation of the Standard BS7910 (1999) Level 3A Assessment Curve

In accordance with the BS7910 [1], the assessment curves for special structures can be constructed using the J-integral approach. If the specified assessment curve falls outside the standard BS7910 [1] assessment curve, it means the standard curve is a lower bound curve. Therefore, the usage of the standard curve would be safe. On the other hand if the calculated assessment curve falls inside the standard curve, then the usage of the standard curve would be unsafe. A critical feature of this process is the choice of the plastic collapse load by which the applied load is divided to produce the Lr value. In accordance with the experimental and numerical studies by Lie et al. [4], the proposed plastic collapse load of cracked SHS T-joint under brace end axial loads is given by (1) where n represent the number of cracks, is the brace to chord width ratio, is the brace depth to chord width ratio, e0 is the yield stress, and a is the crack depth. While b0, b1 and t0 , t1 are the widths and thicknesses of the chord and brace respectively. The first term is the yield load of uncracked joint, and the second one is the reduction of the yield load due to the presence of the cracks. Because there is no available benchmark for the crack modelling of damaged SHS joints, the actual fatigue crack shape shown in Figure 2 is used in the numerical case study.
Failure Assessment Diagrams (FADs)

For cracked structures, the failures due to brittle fracture and plastic collapse must be considered together. The FAD method adopts the assessment curve which uses the ratio of the elastic stress intensity factor to the fracture toughness as the vertical axis and the ratio of the applied load to the plastic collapse load as the abscissa axis. If the service point falls inside the assessment curve, the structure is considered safe, otherwise, the structure is deemed unsafe. The schematic usage of the FAD for the assessment of flawed structure is shown in Figure 1. The assessment curve is different for different materials and geometries. In the standard codes, the lower bound curves are used to assess all types of structures. However, the usage of these standard curves should be validated when they are used to assess the damaged tubular joints.
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Table 1. Dimensions of the specimens Specimen T1 T2 b0 (mm) 350 350 h0 (mm) 350 350 t0 (mm) 15 15 b1 (mm) 200 200 h1 (mm) 200 200 t1 (mm) 16 12 Cracks 1 2 1 Depth a (mm) 12.7 9.0 13.6 Length L (mm) 275 125 262 tw (mm) 12 12
Figure 3. The specified assessment curves for the cracked SHS T-joints
curve gives a low bound curve. Therefore, its usage use for the assessment of cracked SHS T-joints is still safe.
Figure 2. The actual crack and the modelled crack used in the numerical case study
References
The dimensions of the specimens, the weld sizes and fatigue crack details are tabulated in Table 1. Based on these numerical models, the FADs of two SHS Tjoints are constructed as shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that the assessment curves fall outside the standard curve. Therefore, the usage of the standard curve is safe. [1] API RP579 (2000), Fitness-for-Service, American Petroleum Institute, Washington, USA. [2] BS7910 (1999), Guide on Methods for Assessing the Acceptability of Flaws in Fusion Welded Structures, British Standards Institution, London, UK. [3] R6 (2001), Assessment of the Integrity of Structures Containing Defects, Revision 4, British Energy, Gloucester, UK. [4] Lie, S.T., Chiew, S.P., Lee, C.K. & Yang, Z.M., 2005, The Ultimate Behaviour of Cracked Square Hollow Section T-Joints, The Fourth International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures (ICASS 2005), 13-15, June, 2005, Shanghai, China, Vol. 2, pp. 1099-1106.
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Conclusion
Based on the true crack model, the specified assessment curves for the cracked square hollow section (SHS) T-joints are constructed using the numerical J-integral approach. It is found that the standard BS7910 Level 3A [2] assessment
Analysis of Foam Claddings for Blast Alleviation

Ma Guowei (cgwma@ntu.edu.sg) Ye Ziqing (pg05428083@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Structural retrofit using metallic foam materials is of special interest to engineering communities and government agencies against possible impact and blast load threats. The superior microstructure of metallic foam materials endows them with the ability to undergo large deformation at nearly constant nominal stress. In addition to the advantage of their ultralight and nonflammable characteristics, the metallic foam materials can absorb remarkable energy caused by plastic deformation in the case of compression. It is expected that they can be used as sacrificial claddings in the retrofit of structures against impacts and blast loads. In this study, an analytical Load-Cladding-Structure (LCS) model is developed by considering the properties of the blast load, the foam cladding as well as the protected structure. Two non-dimensional parameters for the foam cladding are introduced to describe the relations between the foam cladding and the protected structure. Based on the LCS model, the maximum deflection of the protected structure subjected to a certain explosive load is predicted. It is seen that the maximum deflection of the protected structure varies with the two non-dimensional parameters of the foam cladding.
Figure 1. Analytical Load-Cladding-Structure model The undeformed part of the foam layer (mf m) moves together with the equivalent mass (mse). Hence the motion equation of the equivalent structure is (4)
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The initial peak pressure and total impulse of the blast loading can be normalized as non-dimensional pressure (p) and impulse (i), (5a,b)
Analytical model
The protected structure can be converted to an equivalent structural model, as shown in Fig. 1. The foam layer is assumed to start to deform at the loaded end and a shock wave front forms. As the shock front proceeds, the foam behind the shock front is compacted up to the densification strain D and moves with the same velocity as the rigid cover plate while that ahead of the shock front is not disturbed (undeformed). The mass of the densified part of the foam layer is conserved, which is written as (1) in which u is the displacement of the cover plate of the cladding, y is the deflection of the structure and is the density of the foam material. There is a stress jump across the shock wave front. Based on the momentum conservation of the shock front, the stress at the upstream of the shock front is (2) In light of Newtons second law the motion equation of the densified foam can be expressed as (3) To describe the relation between the plateau stress of the foam and the resistance of the structure, a non-dimensional parameter of the foam cladding is defined as (6)
Meanwhile, the foam cladding should have a sufficient blast resistant capacity. It is reasonable to suggest that the foam layer has such a thickness that the foam layer becomes fully compacted when the protected structure experiences the maximum deflection. The other non-dimensional parameter of the foam cladding is defined as follows
(7)

The deflection of the foam protected structure can be derived based on the LCS model. Figs. 2 (a)~(d) plot the normalized maximum deflection of the equivalent structure under different loads. The non-dimensional maximum deflection of the structure is defined as the resulted maximum deflection divided by the critical deflection yc .
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Figure 2. Normalized maximum deflection of the foam protected structure under different blast loads (a) p=4, i=1.2 (b) p=4, i=2.0 (c) p=10, i=1.2 and (d) p=10, i=2.0
It is seen from Figs. 2 (a)~(d) that the normalized maximum deflection of the foam protected structure varies with the two non-dimensional parameters ( and ) of the foam cladding. The maximum deflections corresponding to different and form a three-dimensional surface, and it looks like the terrain of a valley. The lowest maximum deflection of the structure corresponds to a small and a large . The maximum deflection of the structure is nearly constant for a fixed as long as is sufficiently large and the foam cladding is ensured to withstand the blast load without being fully compacted. The maximum deflection of the structure begins to increase when is lower than a certain value, as shown in the left slope of the valley in Figs. 2 (a)~(d). This is because the foam cladding with a small has a lower blast resistant capacity and it may become fully compacted and subsequently impacts the structure with a considerable velocity. In this case, the foam protected structure may experience a larger maximum deflection than a bare structure. For a fixed and sufficiently large , the maximum deflection of the structure increases with the increase of , as illustrated in the right slope of the valley in Figs. 2 (a)~(d). When is very large, the maximum deflection of the foam protected structure is nearly equal to the maximum deflection of the bare structure. This is because the foam does not deform and
acts as a rigid body which moves together with the protected structure when is larger than p.
Conclusion
57 An analytical Load-Cladding-Structure (LCS) model has been developed to comprehensively investigate the protective effect of the foam cladding. Two non-dimensional parameters, i.e., and have been introduced to describe the relations between the foam cladding and the protected structure. The maximum deflections of foam attached structure under different loads have been predicted. It is found that the foam cladding can reduce the maximum deflection of the main structure to a safe range when is small and is sufficiently large. The LCS model is limited by the R-P-P-L foam material model and the equivalent SDOF structural model. However, it can give a preliminary guidance to the design of foam claddings for structural protection against blast loads.
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Reference
[1] Gibson LJ, Ashby MF. (1997). Cellular solids, Structure and properties, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics by Considering Material Inhomogeneity

Ma Guowei (cgwma@ntu.edu.sg) Wang Xuejun (wang0115@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Recently, a new class of numerical methods called meshfree (or meshless) methods has drawn considerable attention. By constructing the approximation in terms of scattered nodes other than meshes, it could eliminate the disadvantages of rezoning during computations and become more adaptive, versatile and robust for discontinuum problems. The earliest meshfree method is the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method (SPH) which was originally used to solve astrophysical problems in three-dimensional open space. The method was first introduced by Gingold and Monaghan (1977) and Lucy (1977).Since then, the SPH method has been extended to various fields. One of the most significant advantages of the SPH method is that it can naturally handle problems with extremely large deformations and cracks. Another attractive feature is that each SPH particle can carry material property. This makes it very appropriate to simulate the inhomogeneous materials. Although it has been noticed for a long time that the micro-scale material inhomogeneity can greatly affect the macroscopic behavior and fracture process, the exact mechanism of how such process is conducted is poorly understood. In this study, a SPH program which can consider the material inhomogeneity effect has been developed to investigate the dynamic failure process of brittle materials, such as rock and concrete.
To consider material inhomogeneity, the Weibull statistical distribution by Weibull (1951) was used to simulate the real random microstructures. It can be expressed by using two parameters as,
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where is the scale parameter, is the shape parameter describing the scatter of T. By means of the Weibull distribution, the numerical model reflecting the inhomogeneous properties of material can be constructed as the following two characteristic parameters, i.e., the inhomogeneous index and the seed parameter . For any specific rock sample, the inhomogeneous index can be determined on the basis of the defect distribution of the microstructure, and the seed parameter can be obtained from laboratory tests.
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Applications
The SPH method as well as the inhomogeneous model has been implemented to simulate the dynamic rock failure process. One application is the dynamic rock Brazilian splitting test simulation. An elasto-plastic constitutive model coupled with a tensile damage model was employed to describe failure behaviors for brittle materials. An inhomogeneous index value of 5 was adopted to model the inhomogeneous rock sample. Figure 1 shows the schematic map of the test setting and boundary conditions, where a vertical velocity with the peak value of 6 m/s was applied on the top steel plate. Figure 2 shows the principal stresses, shear stress and damage distribution at different failure stages. Results show that the developed method is very promising in simulating the inhomogeneous dynamic failure problems.
Methodology and formulas

The conservation equations of continuum mechanics in SPH approximations are given as follows,
the continuality equation,
the momentum equation,
the energy equation,
the moving equation for particles
Explicit time integration is performed using standard LeapFrog time integral method for the above equations.
Figure 1. Brazilian dynamic test simulation
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Figure 2. Distributions of principal stresses (MPa), shear stress (MPa) and damage during the failure process from a) to d)
References
[1] Gingold, R. A., and Monaghan, J. J. (1977). Smoothed particle hydrodynamics: theory and application to nonspherical stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 181(2), 375-89.
[2] Lucy, L. B. (1977). A numerical approach to the testing of the fission hypothesis [close binary star formation]. Astronomical Journal, 82(12), 1013-24. [3] Weibull, W. (1951). A statistical distribution function of wide applicability. J. Appl Phys, 28, 293-297.
Ground Motions Recorded in Singapore during the Nias, Northern Sumatra Earthquake (MW = 8.7) of 28 March 2005
Pan Tso-Chien (cpan@ntu.edu.sg) Karim Kazi Rezaul (crkkazi@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Tremors caused by distant Sumatra earthquakes have been felt in Singapore for many years and they have shaken many high-rise buildings to a perceptible level. The national network of seismic stations in Singapore was therefore set up in 1996 to monitor ground motions resulting from long distance Sumatra earthquakes [1]. In this paper, ground motions recorded in Singapore during the Nias, Northern Sumatra earthquake of 28 March 2005 are reported. Discussions on the local seismic hazard are also presented.
Mainshock and aftershocks

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) [2] an earthquake with a magnitude of MW = 8.7 occurred in Nias, Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, on 28 March 2005, at 16:09:36 UTC (29 March 2005, 00:09:36 Singapore Time). The USGS National Earthquake Information Centre (NEIC) [3] reported that the epicentre of the earthquake was located at 2.074 N and 97.013 E, in Nias, Northern Sumatra. The epicentre was about 757 km west-northwest of Singapore as shown in Figure 1. The earthquake caused wide-spread tremors felt in Singapore as depicted in Figure 2. The main shock of the earthquake on 28 March 2005 was followed by many aftershocks. Following the main shock, aftershocks were collected from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) [4]. Occurring between 28 March 2005 and 8 April 2005, there were about 65 aftershocks with a minimum magnitude of about 5.0 and the distribution of the epicentral locations of the larger aftershocks is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Epicentral locations of the main shock and major aftershocks (M5.0) of the Nias, Northern Sumatra earthquake of 28 march 2005
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Figure 2. Locations in Singapore where tremors were felt due to the Nias, Norther Sumatra earthquake
Seismic instrumentation
In 1996, the Meteorological Services of Singapore (MSS) installed a network of seismic stations [1], which consists of two down-hole arrays (BES and KAP) of strong-motion stations and five teleseismic stations (BTDF, FTC, NTU, PTK and SJA). The two down-hole arrays are located on the Kallang formation of Quaternary deposits. The main station, located in the Bukit Timah nature reserve and denoted as BTDF, is a Global Seismic Network (GSN) station, which is equipped with a comprehensive set of sensors to record ground tremors continuously. BTDF is located on a rock outcrop site. The recorded ground motion time histories are transmitted to the MSS headquarters to be processed and analyzed.
Figure 3. Locations of the SAFER array stations
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Recorded ground motions

One NTU station (NYC) and four of the MSS stations (BES, BTDF, NTU, and PTK) were triggered during the Nias, Northern Sumatra earthquake. It should be noted that the system at RP site was down during the event, and there was therefore no records at the RP site. Ground motions from the main shock (Mw = 8.7) on 28 March 2005 (16:09:36 UTC) were successfully recorded. Baseline-corrected acceleration time histories at different MSS seismic stations due to the main shock are shown in Figure 4.
Discussion
The Nias, Northern Sumatra earthquake generally induced a far-field PGA that is larger than that by the other major earthquakes have been felt in Singapore so far. It also induced more widespread tremors felt in Singapore. With more tall buildings present in Singapore today, the possibility is not remote that such far-field ground motions when occur at a closer epicentral distance can induce larger response of buildings. Therefore, the effects of these large earthquakes on the high-rise buildings in Singapore need to be investigated further.
Conclusion
In this paper, ground motions recorded in Singapore during the Nias, Northern Sumatra earthquake of 28 March 2005 are reported. Discussion on the local seismic hazard is also presented. From the recorded ground motions, it was observed that the event generally induced a far-field PGA that is larger than that of the previous major events. The observation supports the need for continued monitoring and research on the seismic response characteristics of high-rise buildings in Singapore, where earthquake-resistant design is not specifically required.
Figure 4. Baseline=corrected acceleogram of EW (top), NS (middle), and UD (bottom) component in mm/s2 of the main shock (2005/03/28 16/09/36 UTC) of the Nias, Northern Sumatra earthquake, recorded in Singapore
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References
[1] Lee CL. (2000). Characteristics of earthquake ground motions in Singapore. M.Eng. Thesis, 26-39. [2] United States Geological Survey (USGS).http:// earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2005/usweax/. [3] National Earthquake Information Centre (NEIC).http:// neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/sig_2005.html. [4] Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology.http:/ /www.iris.edu/quakes/eventsrch.htm.
The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has also installed two additional seismic stations [1], one inside the campus (denoted as NYC) and the other in the basement of a high-rise office building in the central business district (denoted as RP). The NYC station is located on a firm residual soil site, and the building in which the RP station is located sits on rigid caissons. The seven MSS and two NTU stations form an array called the Singapore Array for Earthquake Response (SAFER array). The locations of the SAFER array stations are depicted in Figure 3.
Electromechanical Impedance Modeling of PZT Active Sensors for Health Monitoring of Cylindrical Shell Structures
Yang Yaowen (cywyang@ntu.edu.sg) Hu Yuhang (huyu0006@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The advent of smart materials has brought about a revolutionary impact on the engineered adaptive capabilities of structural systems. Having the ability of imparting material deformation in response to an applied electric field, and conversely generating a dielectric polarization when subjected to mechanical strain, the piezoceramic lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) active sensors can be used for structural health monitoring when they are bonded to or embedded into an existing structure. Occurrence or evolution of damage in the structure will alter the electric impedance of the PZT sensor due to the electro-mechanical (EM) coupling effect of the PZT material. Thus, by continuous recording of PZT impedance signature, the health status of the structure can be monitored. In this article, an EM impedance model is presented for damage identification and health monitoring of cylindrical shell structures. The interacting forces and the velocity responses at the boundary of a PZT active sensor bonded to the cylindrical shell have the following relationship (4) where and are the velocities of the shell; a and h are the radius and thickness of the shell, respectively; and x1, x2, 1 and 2 are the coordinates defining the location of the PZT sensor.
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Force impedance of structure

Considering a cylindrical shell with a small damage simulated by a hole of radius rd at , the potential and kinetic energy of the shell can be expressed as (5)
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EM impedance of PZT active sensors

The generic impedance model for 2-D PZT-structure interacting systems developed in [1] is adopted in this study to closely simulate the real situation. The EM admittance of a 2-D PZT active sensor can be calculated as
(6) where
(1) where j symbolizes the imaginary part; is the input angular frequency; ap , bp and hp are the length, width and thickness, respectively; vp is the Poissons ratio; d31 and d32 are the strain coefficients; is the complex dielectric permittivity at constant stress, with being the real dielectric permittivity and being the dielectric loss factor; is the complex Youngs modulus at zero elastic field, with being the real Youngs modulus and being the mechanical loss factor; is the spatial frequency of the oscillations with p being the mass density; and coefficients A and C are calculated by (2) where (3) with Z11 and Z22 being the direct force impedances, and Z12 and Z21 being the cross force impedances of the structure.
(7) E, v and are Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio and mass density of the shell, respectively; and is the transverse displacement of the mid plane which can be expressed as a combination of a set of shape functions (8) where m = (q+1)(q+2) /2i ; N is the degree of the polynomial space; cm are the coefficients; and m are the approximate functions which satisfy at least the geometric boundary conditions. Proceeding the Harmiltons principle and extending the free vibration modes into the forced vibration modes based on the orthogonality, the displacement can be formulated in terms of the interacting forces and . Expressing ux and v as
STRUCTURES
functions of and substituting them into Eqn.(4), the force impedance of the structure can be obtained. Finally, the PZT impedance, which is the inverse of the admittance, can be calculated from Eqn.(1).
Experiments and results

To verify the developed impedance model, an experimental test has been carried out on an aluminium cylindrical shell specimen. The equipments and the specimen are illustrated in Figure 1. Two PZT patches are bonded to the cylindrical shell at the same location but on the opposite surfaces. Through the multiplex terminal, an electrical field is applied to the two PZT patches with opposite directions, so that pure bending vibration is actuated in the shell. The shell specimen rests on soft papers to simulate free boundary conditions. A hole is drilled in the specimen to simulate the damage. For the undamaged specimen, the real part of the admittance predicted by the impedance model is compared with the measured results, as shown in Figure 2. It is observed that the predicted and measured admittance signatures agree well with each other, especially the locations of the peaks, which are the most important information for damage identification, are very close. For the damaged shell, Figure 3 shows the measured and predicted EM admittance spectra. Again, predicted peaks are close to the measured ones. Figure 4 shows the trend of peak shift predicted by the impedance model for the undamaged and damaged shells and Figure 5 depicts the experimentally measured peak shift. Similar trend can be observed from Figures 4 and 5. That is, certain peaks shift to left due to the reduction of structural stiffness caused by the damage. It can be concluded from Figures 2 to 5 that the developed impedance model is capable of predicting the EM impedance of the PZT patch bonded on the cylindrical shell specimen. By utilizing
Figure 3. Measured and predicted admittance of damaged shell
Figure 4. Predicted admittance for undamaged and damaged shell

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Figure 5. Measured admittance for undamaged and damaged shell
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the back-calculation algorithm developed in [2], this model paves the way for damage identification for cylindrical shell structures.
Conclusions
The predicted admittance spectra agree well with the experimentally measured results, which not only verifies the developed impedance model but also validates the feasibility of the model for the damage identification of the cylindrical shell structures. Therefore, the utility of the EM impedance method for structural health monitoring can be effectively extended to the cylindrical shell structures.
Figure 1. Equipments and specimen of the experiment
References
[1] Yang YW, Xu JF, Soh CK. (2005). A generic impedancebased model for structure-PZT interacting system. J Aerospace Engnr, ASCE; 18(2):93-101 [2] Xu JF, Yang YW and Soh CK. 2004. EM impedancebased structural health monitoring with evolutionary programming. J Aerospace Engnr, ASCE; 17(4):182-193
Figure 2. Measured and predicted admittance of undamaged shell
Krylov Precise Time-Step Integration Method

Fung Tat Ching (ctcfung@ntu.edu.sg) Chen Zhen Lin (pg01762434@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The equations of motion of a multi-degree-of-freedom system can be written as (1) where [M], [C] and [K] are time-invariant mass, damping and stiffness matrices, respectively, {r(t)} is the external force vector and {x(t)} is the unknown displacement vector. The transient responses of Equation (1) are usually obtained by means of time-step integration methods. In 1994, Zhong and Williams [1] proposed the precise time-step integration (PTI) method. Linearly varying loading form was considered within each time step. This method could give very accurate solutions by just using only one time step over a large interval. is referred as the m-th Krylov subspace associated with the pair ([A],{v}) and is denoted by Km([A],{v}) or simply Km if there is no ambiguity. By using the Krylov subspace method, it can be shown that [2] where = ||v||2, [Vm] = [v1, v2, ..., vm] is the orthogonal basis for the Krylov subspace Km, which can be obtained by the Arnoldi algorithm, and [Hm] is an mm upper Hessenberg matrix given by [Hm] = [vm]T[A][Vm] . Typically, m is much smaller than the dimension of [A].
Pad approximations
It is important to note that in the Krylov subspace method, the accuracy of exp([Hm]t) will influence the accuracy of exp([A]t) and hence the stability of the Krylov PTI method. As a result, it is necessary to employ an accurate and efficient algorithm to compute exp([Hm]t). To improve the computational efficiency, exp([Hm]t) can be computed from the (p, p) diagonal Pad approximation which is given by (2)
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PTI method
In the PTI method [1], Equation (1) is rewritten as where
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The solution at t = t is given by where {U0} is the given initial condition and {Up} is the particular solution depending on the excitation {R}. A special feature in the PTI method is that the exponential matrix exp([A] t) is to be computed recursively from [exp([A] t/2N)] by N matrix multiplications using the scaling and squaring procedure. As the dimension of the system increases, the computational cost increases tremendously. Here, the Krylov precise timestep integration method is proposed to reduce the computational cost. Also, the computational efficiency can be further improved by employing the Pad approximation in computing the initial matrix required in the computation.
where
and
To improve the computational efficiency further, the scaling and squaring procedure in the PTI method is used to compute exp([Hm]t) with exp([Hm]t/2N) computed from the (p, p) diagonal Pad approximation.
Algorithm analysis
If the dimension of the system in Equation (1) is n, the total computational counts to compute the multiplication of the exponential matrix and the initial vector in the original PTI method and the Krylov PTI method are and
Krylov subspace method

The main feature of the Krylov subspace method [2] is to seek an approximate solution to the original problem from a subspace. The original matrix problem is approximated by another problem of smaller size. Hence the computational cost can be reduced significantly. Consider a given square matrix [A] and a nonzero vector {v}. The Krylov subspace defined by
respectively. As a result, the Krylov PTI method will be more efficient than the original PTI method if
STRUCTURES
(3) It can be seen from Equation (3) that the range of m increases with t. If t=T , then m can be a very large value. On the other hand, the Krylov PTI method will not be efficient when the time step size is too small. Fortunately, the restriction of the time step size is relaxed by using the PTI method. In conclusion, the current Krylov PTI method will be more efficient than the original PTI method when the value of m used in the computation is not beyond the range given by Equation (3).
and {f0} and {f1} are n1 vectors with repeated triplets of elements as shown below {f0} = [1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 0, ...]T {f1} = [0.01, 0.02, 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0, ...]T The initial displacement and velocity vectors {x0 } and { are, respectively }
Numerical example
A numerical example is given here to demonstrate the numerical accuracy and efficiency of the present Krylov precise time-step integration method in solving large-scale dynamic problems. The example is run on a PC with a Pentium III 1GHz CPU. Consider an n degree-of-freedom system governed by
The results given by the original PTI method and the present Krylov PTI method are given in Table 1. For the present Krylov PTI method, the order of Pad approximations p is chosen as 4. The values of m used in the computing process are within the range determined from Equation (3). Table 1 shows that the Krylov PTI method is much more efficient than the original PTI method when the dimension of the system is larger than 100. As the dimension of the system increases, the advantage of the present method becomes more obvious.
where t [0,100], [M], [C] and [K] are nn matrices given by
Conclusions
The Krylov subspace method is used to reduce the dimensions of the computing matrices. To improve the computational efficiency, equal order Pad approximations are used to evaluate the initial matrix to be used in the scaling and squaring procedure. The efficient range of m (order of the Krylov subspace) has been studied. The proposed Krylov PTI method is shown to have high efficiency and accuracy.
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References
[1] Zhong WX, Williams FW. A precise time step integration method. Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 1994; 208: 427~430. [2] Gallopoulos E, Saad Y. Efficient solution of parabolic equations by Krylov approximation methods. SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing 1992; 13: 1236~1264.
Table 1. Computational effort to evaluate the result xn, at t=100s for various n Dimension of system (n) Result Xn Original PTI method [1] Krylov PTI method (p=4) Time step Time cost(s) Time step m Time cost(s) 40 565.459645 t = 100s 0.520 t = 10s 29 1.642 100 825.991465 t = 100s 16.634 t = 10s 28 9.564 150 825.813988 t = 100s 58.484 t = 10s 29 26.187 200 852.437004 t = 100s 149.435 t = 10s 29 47.909 300 825.813988 t = 100s 516.512 t = 10s 28 106.473
Note: For the Krylov PTI method, N in each time step depends on ||Hmt|| and ranges from 11 to 13 in the present calculations.
Fuzzy GA for Optimal Vibration Control of Smart Cylindrical Shells

Yang Yaowen (cywyang@ntu.edu.sg) Jin Zhanli (ezljin@ntu.edu.sg) Soh Chee Kiong (csohck@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Piezoelectric materials have been applied in structural vibration control to take advantage of their fast response, their flexibility to be used as sensors and actuators(S/As) in a large variety of applications, and the fact that they provide broadband frequency responses. The piezoelectric S/As have to be of suitable size and placement to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency. A lot of research effort has been concentrated on beam and plate structures for optimal vibration control. However, despite their wide applications, the investigation on optimal vibration control of shell structures has seldom been reported due to the complexity of the problem. Fuzzy logic provides an easy way to deal with complex problems because it can be built with fuzzy models containing vagueness and impreciseness in knowledge representation. In this article, a fuzzy rule-based system is developed and incorporated into a genetic algorithm (GA) to search for the optimal design of piezoelectric S/As for the vibration control of cylindrical shells. ;
; ; ; Upq (x,) and k(t) are the mode shape functions and modal participation factors of the transverse displacement, respectively; G is the feedback gain matrix; N = mn is the number of vibration modes under control; k = pq, k = n(p1)+q, p = 1,2,...,m, q = 1,2,...,n, pq is the natural frequency; k is the damping ratio of the k th vibration mode; is the effective electrode surface of sensor i; rs and ra denote the distances from the neutral surface of the cylindrical shell to the mid-surfaces of the sensor and the actuator, respectively; hs is the thickness of sensor; e 31 is the piezoelectric stress constant; 33 is the permittivity constant; and and are the mass density and Poissons ratio of the shell, respectively. More details of derivation can be referred to [1]. The problem can be expressed as a nonlinear optimization problem as , subject to (1) variable , ; (2) static constraints: and (3) dynamic constraints which avoid overlap of piezoelectric patches.
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Energy-based approach for optimal design

Figure 1 shows a thin cylindrical elastic shell with NP pairs of collocated piezoelectric S/As bonded on its surfaces. The most attractive methodology that accounts for transient vibration responses is characterized by the maximization of the dissipation energy extracted by the feedback control system. The more the energy is dissipated by the control system, the less the energy is stored in the system. When considering a constant negative velocity feedback and using the state-space method, the total energy stored in the system can be written as , where is the initial state and P is the solution of the Lyapunov equation , in which ;
limits:
Fuzzy GA
In this study, a series of linguistic terms are defined to describe the relationship between the boundary of the piezoelectric patch and the nearest vibration nodal line. According to the interpretation of the fuzzy linguistic terms, the following seven fuzzy terms are used: negative large (NL), negative medium (NM), negative small (NS), zero (ZE), positive small (PS), positive medium (PM), and positive large (PL). They are defined by the membership functions shown in [2]. The knowledge and experience that the piezoelectric patches should not be located across the nodal lines of the vibration modes of the structure [2,3] is used to establish the fuzzy rule base (FRB). A typical fuzzy rule Coordinate offset = NL and
STRUCTURES
Figure 3. Optimal geometric distribution of piezoelectric patches for different vibration modes
regions separated by the vibration nodal lines of the cylindrical shell.

Table 1. Efficiency comparison of two GA methods Vibration modes m=1, n=1 Figure 2. Flowchart of fuzzy GA m=2, n=1 m=1, n=2 m=2, n=2 m=1, n=3 m=2, n=3 Average generation to find optimum 54.3 89.6 85.6 123.0 150.2 219.8 89.5 140.9 139.7 178.4 234.2 290.1 Average best fitness Pure GA 3.6920103 5.483110 9.370810 1.092910
3
Fuzy GA Pure GA Fuzzy GA 3.692010 5.483110 9.367210 1.084510

3 3
Iteration reduction 39.3% 36.4% 38.7% 31.1% 35.9% 24.2%

7.7511103 7.7511103
3 2 3 2
Derivative = NT in the FRB can be interpreted as IF (The coordinate offset of the piezoelectric patch is NL) AND (The corresponding derivative of the coordinate variable is NT), THEN (The coordinate offset of the corresponding coordinate variable is NM). Different from the standard GA, the fuzzy GA introduces the FRB for the local modification of the design variables, which is of great importance to its search efficiency. As shown in Figure 2, the function of FRB comes after a new generation is produced and before the next iteration is carried out. Based on the results of the evaluation for the new generation, the FRB is activated if necessary. If it is activated, each rule in the FRB will be checked to make a decision on whether certain design variables need to be modified.
1.1651102 1.1732102
The results obtained by the pure GA are quite close to those of the fuzzy GA. However, the fuzzy GA has much higher search efficiency than the pure GA. Detailed comparisons of the two GA methods for the generation in which the optimum is found, the average best fitness and the percentage reduction in iteration are listed in Table 1. It can be found that with the fuzzy GA, the iterations of the genetic optimization process can be significantly reduced.
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Conclusions Numerical examples

The geometric optimization of piezoelectric patches for optimal vibration control based on the proposed approach is carried out, and the simulation is implemented for a simply supported cylindrical shell and a clamped-simply supported plate, but only the results of the shell are presented due to the length limit of the article. The comparison between the pure GA and the fuzzy GA for search efficiency is also presented. Optimal geometric distributions of the piezoelectric patches for different vibration modes are calculated by both the pure GA and the fuzzy GA. 10 runs for each mode are carried out. The best result of the 10 runs obtained by the fuzzy GA for each mode is schematically plotted in Figure 3, in which the dashed lines denote the nodal lines of the vibration modes and the areas filled with diagonal lines represent the piezoelectric patches bonded on the shell. From Figure 3, it is apparent that the optimal distributions of the piezoelectric S/As are located within the A fuzzy GA for optimal vibration control of smart shell structures has been developed to improve the search efficiency of the pure GA. Numerical results show that the optimal distributions of the piezoelectric S/As are located within the regions separated by the vibration nodal lines. Compared to the pure GA, the fuzzy GA can reduce the required computing cost by 20-40%.
References
[1] Yang YW, Jin ZL and Soh CK. (2006). Integrated optimization of control systems for smart cylindrical shells using a modified GA. J of Aerospace Engnr, ASCE; 19(2): in press [2] Yang YW and Soh CK. (2000). Fuzzy logic integrated genetic programming for structural optimization and design. J Comput Civ Engnr, ASCE; 14(3):249-254 [3] Tzou HS and Fu HQ. (1994). A study on segmentation of distributed piezoelectric sensors and actuators: Part I theoretical analysis. J Sound and Vib; 172(2):247-259
Numerical Characterization of Structural Response to Above-Ground Explosions

Lu Yong (cylu@ntu.edu.sg) Wang Zhongqi
Introduction
The response of building structures to nearby explosions is complicated by the drastic spatial and time variation of the blast loads. A sound understanding of the response characteristics is required before any simplified approach may be adopted for engineering analysis. In this study, the structural response to above-ground explosions is characterized using a full coupled numerical simulation model. The computational domain encompasses the structure, the surrounding air, the charge, as well as a layer of soil medium so that the explosion-induced ground vibration effect can also be evaluated.
For the reinforcing steel, the John-Cook model is adopted. For an appropriate modeling of the behaviour of soil under severe explosion loading, a numerical three-phase soil model (Wang et al. 2004) is used. The model formulation can be roughly divided into two main parts: the equation of state and the strength model. Satisfying the continuity requirements, it follows (3) where V = volume of a soil element, V0 = initial total volume of the element, Vw = volume of water, Vg and Vs = volumes of air and soil particles, respectively. The pressure load causes deformation in each phase, as well as friction between the solid particles and deformation of the bond between the solid particles. The friction force and the force due to the bond all exerts on the solid phase. Satisfying the equilibrium leads to an incremental form of the equation of state for the multi-phase soil, in which the contributions from the constituent phases can be obtained from their independent equations of state or stress-strain relationship. To include the effect of hydrostatic stress on the shearing resistance of the soil, the modified von Mises yield criterion is adopted and further modified to take into account the strain rate, as (4) The Jones-Wilkens-Lee (JWL) equation of state is adopted to model the detonation of the explosive charge.
Coupled model and material descriptions

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A general configuration of building structures subjected to an above-ground explosion is depicted in Figure 1(a). The algorithm of coupling the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational structural dynamics (CSD) is adopted to facilitate the interaction between the air shock wave, the structure, and the ground.
a) Model configuration b) Computed pressure field Figure 1: Schematic of a generic coupled model
Numerical investigation
For the modeling of concrete, the RHT model (Riedel et al., 1999) is employed. The material model uses three strength surfaces; an elastic limit surface, a failure surface and a remaining strength surface for the crushed material. The failure surface Y is defined as (1) where , fc = compressive strength, A = failure surface constant, N = failure surface exponent, p* = pressure normalized by fc , p*spall = p* (ft / fc). FRATE() is the strain rate function. R3() defines the third invariant dependency of the model as a function of the second and third stress invariants and a meridian ratio.
A generic multi-storey reinforced concrete frame is chosen, as shown in Figure 1. The dimensions of the frame and the material used are typical for multi-storey building structures. The explosion scenario is designed such that both local and entire structural system response can be represented. Thus, a charge of 1000 kg TNT (equivalent) is selected. The standoff distance is 30m measuring from the front face of the structure, giving a scaled standoff distance equal to 3m/kg1/3. Figure 1(b) depicts the contour of the pressure at a particular instant. Figure 2 shows typical blast overpressure on the front face of the structure. The peak overpressure tends to decrease gradually at higher positions. At the same time, the arrival time of the shock front gradually delays as the height increases.
The elastic limit surface is scaled from the failure surface, while the residual strength is defined with a residual failure surface. The damage in concrete is accumulated via a damage model relating to the cumulative plastic strain.
STRUCTURES
Storey 1-mid height
Floor level 1
Floor level 2
Roof level
Figure 3: Stress wave propagation inside soil
Figure 2: Blast pressure load on the front face of structure
Several target points are arranged inside the soil to record the stress wave propagation. Typical soil pressure curves are plotted in Figure 3. The pressure in the soil also attenuates rapidly with the increase of the distance from the charge location. Near the charge the pressure exhibits extremely high value. In fact, as can be seen from the contours shown in Figure 1(b), a half-spherical crater of radius about 2m is created beneath the point of detonation. Figure 4 shows the damage contours of the entire structure. Severe damage is observed to occur mainly in the elements on the front face of the structure, due apparently to the strike of direct air shock wave. The remaining part of the structure exhibit more or less a uniform distribution of damage among different elements and it is generally minor. This indicates that the global dynamic response plays a relatively insignificant role as compared to the direct shock effect on the front face of the structure. The damage to the front face elements shows a distinctive pattern. Within each storey, the severest damage is concentrated at both ends and around the middle portion of the column. For the case analyzed, the first-storey column above the ground level exhibits the severest damage. From the computed vibration histories at target points all over the structure, it is observed that the highest velocity of about 6 m/s occurs at the first storey column on the front face, followed by the second storey column (about 1.7m/s). The maximum velocity at the joint locations is generally on a lower order of about 0.5m/s. The displacement profile of the front face elements also shows apparent column member deformations. On the contrary, the global response as represented by the drifts at the floor (or joint) locations is relatively small. In fact, the maximum relative drift between adjacent floors is no more than 10mm, or 0.3~0.4% of the respective storey height. In order to evaluate the extent to which the explosion-induced ground vibration could affect the response of the structure, two additional analyses are performed for separate air overpressure and ground vibration effects, respectively. In the analysis for the air overpressure effect alone, an artificial
Figure 4: Damage contours (left = combined load; right = ground shock only)
rigid barrier is placed in front of the basement in the soil to block the propagation of the stress wave in the soil towards the structure base. Likewise, for the other case a rigid barrier is placed in front of the main structure to block the propagation of the air shock wave towards the structure so that only the ground vibration is effective. The damage contour for the structure under the air blast alone is found to be practically identical to that under the combined loads, whereas the damage due to the ground vibration effect alone appears to be negligible (Figure 4). The above results indicate that, for typical frame structures subjected an above-ground explosion, the damage to the building frame is primarily concentrated in the elements on the front face, due to the effect of the direct air shock wave. The global dynamic response of the system is relatively insignificant. Besides, the ground vibration effect appears to produce only some secondary vibrations.
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References
[1] Riedel, W., Thoma, K., and Hiermaier, S., Numerical analysis using a new macroscopic concrete model for hydrocodes. Proceedings of 9th International Symposium on Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures, Berlin, Germany, 1999: 315-322. [2] Wang, Z., Lu, Y., Hao, H. and Chong, K., A full coupled numerical analysis approach for buried structures subjected to subsurface blast. Computers and Structures, 2004; 83(4-5): 339-356.
Generic Beam-Column Model for Response to Impulsive Ground Shocks

Gong Shunfeng (csfgong@ntu.edu.sg) Lu Yong (cylu@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Under impulsive ground shock excitation, the response of beam-column frame structure can exhibit characteristics of both impact and natural earthquake responses, where the critical response may be governed by local dynamic phenomenon while the global dynamic response also participate to a lesser extent (Lu et al. 2001; Ma et al. 2003). To accommodate both levels of the dynamic effects in the analysis, the present study proposes a beam-column model with concentrated mass to represent the general dynamic system. The formulation of the model is based on the Timoshenko beam theory. The nonlinearity is modeled through three nonlinear response mechanisms, while a general hysteretic model is adopted to describe the nonlinear cyclic behaviour.
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Figure 2. Primary response mechanisms and generic hysteretic model
can provide a representation of the axial forces in the columns. Because of the high frequency (short duration) nature of the ground shocks, it is important to include the shear deformation and the corresponding effect into the analysis. For this reason, the formulation is based on the Timoshenko beam theory. The Timoshenko beam theory takes into account the rotary inertia and shear deflection that are not modeled in ordinary Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The slope of the deflection curve depends not only on the rotation of cross sections of the beam but also the shear deformations. The governing equations of motion for Timoshenko beam considering base excitation may be written as (1) (2) where M , Q = bending moment and shear force, respectively, I = moment of inertia, A = cross-sectional area, = material density, = rotation of the cross-section due to bending, w = transverse displacement, and ag = acceleration of ground motion. Besides the elastic bending and shear response, the constitutive models include the nonlinear sectional momentcurvature relationship, the diagonal shear behaviour (shear force-shear strain relationship), as well the direct shear-slide displacement relationship (Figure 2). The skeleton relationships are derived from the typical procedures for the respective analysis, while a general hysteretic model is adopted to describe the hysteretic loops for all these responses with appropriate parameter settings. For the skeleton moment-curvature relationship, the typical fibre model is employed. In this model, a cross section is divided into fine strips parallel to the axis of rotation, and considering confined and unconfined concrete zones. The
Model formulation
The generic column-mass-spring system, shown in Figure 1, is considered to represent the critical column response to horizontal component of the ground shock. By adjusting the amount of the concentrated mass at the column top and the spring constant, a certain global mode contribution can be readily incorporated.
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Figure 1. Simplification of frame into beam-column with concentrated mass model
The generic beam-mass-spring system, also shown in Figure 1, is considered for the analysis of the dynamic response of the beam (floor) system under vertical component of the ground shock. The two end-springs are used to represent the axial stiffness of the connecting columns. The two concentrated mass at the ends of the beam can be adjusted such that the participation of the axial vibration mode along the column axis can be represented. Besides the analysis of the beam response, the vertical forces in the spring supports
STRUCTURES
Beam end shear slip
Diagonal shear force vs shear strain
Figure 3. Example analysis results for beam under vertical ground shock
establishment of the diagonal shear relationship can be obtained from appropriate analysis model such as the compression field theory. The direct shear behaviour is analyzed on the basis of an empirical Hawkins model. The hysteretic behavior of RC members under cyclic loading has been a subject of extensive study in the past. In the present study, the three-parameter Park model is adopted for all three resistance mechanisms under consideration. The detailed hysteretic rules governing inelastic loading, unloading and reloading processes are illustrated in Figure 2. The parameter controls the stiffness degradation, controls the pinching, and controls the strength degradation. By adjusting these parameters, different hysteretic patterns suitable to describe the flexure, diagonal shear and direct shear responses can be achieved.
As an example, Figure 3 shows an equivalent beam system under a vertical ground shock. The concentrated mass (5000kg) at the two ends of the beam approximates the reactive mass that may be allocated to the beam ends in the actual frame. A typical response time history and the diagonal shear vs. shear strain hysteretic loops are also plotted in Figure 3 to illustrate the analysis results. The proposal model can be used to analyze the critical beam and column response to impulsive ground shocks, and it can also be extended to analyze the beam-column response to other types of impulsive load and study the corresponding governing failure mechanisms.
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References
[1] Lu, Y., Hao, H., Ma, G. and Zhou Y.X., Simulation of structural response under high-frequency ground excitation. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 2001; 30: 307-325. [2] Ma, G., Hao, H. and Lu, Y., Modelling damage potential of high-frequency ground motions. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 2003; 32: 14831503.
Numerical procedure and analysis example

The solution of the inelastic beam-column response based on Timoshenko beam formulation and incorporating the various nonlinear mechanisms can be obtained numerically. A computer program is written for this purpose based on the finite difference technique.
Reinforced Concrete Frames Subjected To Explosion-Induced Ground Motions (EIGMS)

PAN Tso-Chien (cpan@ntu.edu.sg) LIM Chee Leong (cheeleong@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Growing populations, industrial development and commercial development have narrowed the gap between the demand and supply of surface land. In view of this and ongoing defence strategies of each country, underground space development became important. Within Singapore, the Protective Technology Research Centre was established in 1998, via a Memorandum of Understanding between Ministry of Defence, Singapore, and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The research objectives included the experimental testing of rock specimens from geological sites in Singapore, (Zhao et al, 1999), the prediction of ground motions generated by explosion-induced ground motions (EIGMs) (Hao et al, 2001) and the damage assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings subjected to EIGMs (Lu et al, 2001; Pan et al, 2004). With the concerted research efforts of Defence Science Technologies Agency (DSTA) and NTU, the first underground ammunition facilities (UAFs) were constructed in Mandai, Singapore. This development has resulted in the freeing up of surface land and the Institute of Engineers, Singapore, has awarded DSTA and NTU, the Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards 2004. Related to the construction of UAFs, research was undertaken in the establishment of the Inhabited Building Distance (IBD), defined as the safety distance for surface structures around UAFs. This article summarizes research findings related to the response of RC buildings subjected to EIGMs. Here, the response results of material-level models and those approximated by simplified structural-level models are compared.
In a later study, a material-level model of a 2-storey RC frame was prepared, and the response of the frame when subjected to an EIGM was determined (Pan et al, 2004). For this study, the EIGMs used were generated by scaling a simulated EIGM felt at a 10 m distance from the source of detonation of a 100-tonne TNT, with a loading density of 10 kg/m3 (Hao et al, 2001). For the material-level model of the RC frame, the damage assessment is presented in Figure 1. Different zones related to the extent and nature of damage, are shown in Figure 1. Also, NATOs PPV limit of 0.23 m/ s is shown in Figure 1. The implications by Lu et al (2001) and Pan et al (2004) agree in that a PPV limited to 0.23 m/ s may be conservative. However, an improvement to the damage assessment of RC frames may include the strength enhancement of concrete due to high strain rates, which would be inherent during the loading duration of the EIGM. Here, the objective is to include the strength enhancement effect due to high strain rate effect for the damage assessment of RC frames subjected to EIGMs, where the RC frame is represented by a structural-level model. Also, an approximation of the damage of the RC frame by only analyzing the base column of an RC frame is proposed. The approximation assumes that the boundary conditions of the base column are fixed at the top and bottom. It is believed that this simplified methodology would provide quick damage assessment of an RC frame subjected to EIGMs. The feasibility of such a simplified methodology is tested by applying it on the 2-storey RC frame used by Pan et al (2004), and the results compared with those based on the material-level model by Pan et al (2004). The damage results determined by the simplified methodology are presented in
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RC Frames subjected to EIGMs

Earthquake ground motions and EIGMs are similar in that each induces structural response due to the inertial forces. However, earthquake ground motions and EIGMs differ in that EIGMs occur within much shorter durations of the order of microseconds, and EIGMs have higher acceleration amplitudes of the order of 80 g to 150 g. The regulatory guideline by NATO on UAFs limits the peak particle velocity (PPV) on building sites to be 0.23 m/s in hard rock (NATO, 1997). In a separate study, the response results of a 2-storey RC subjected to EIGMs showed that the PPV limit of 0.23 m/s in hard rock may be conservative. Justified relaxation of this conservatism would lead to larger allowable IBD, which would in turn free up more land (Lu et al, 2001). In this study, the RC frame was represented by a structural-level of a column over the height of the frame.
PPV (m/s)
Principal frequency (Hz) A: flexural failure only; B: flexural & shear failure C: shear failure only; D: no failure : PPV = 0.23 m/s
Figure 1. Damage assessment based on material-level model (Pan et al, 2004)
STRUCTURES
PPV (m/s)
Principal frequency (Hz)
PPV (m/s)
Principal frequency (Hz)

Figure 3. LB for 2-storey and 6-storey RC frame
A: flexural failure only; C1: shear failure only; D: no failure : PPV = 0.23 m/s
Figure 2. Damage assessment based on the simplified methodology
Figure 2. In comparison to the damage results determined by Pan et al (2004), those determined by the simplified approximation makes a distinction between shear failure and flexural failure. The damage results are similar to those determined based on material-level modeling for frequencies below 100 Hz. At higher frequencies, the damage results determined by the simplified methodology are conservative. This is because the induced shear forces for the assumed fixed-end boundary conditions tend to be larger than those of a base column in an RC frame. However, this simplified methodology does provide a quick assessment of the design adequacies for a RC frames subjected to EIGMs. Further, the damage assessment for a 2-storey and 6-storey RC frame was performed separately, based on the simplified methodology. The RC frames are designed based on nonseismic designs. Figure 3 shows the lower bound (LB) for the damage of each RC frame, when subjected to EIGMs. By comparing the trend of structural failure between the 2storey and 6-storey frame, a relationship between the resistance of RC frames subjected to EIGMs and the height of the RC frame can thus be postulated. It can be said that a lighter and stiffer RC frame may resist EIGMs of a higher PPV at the same principle frequency, provided that the RC frames are based on the same design code. While such a postulate may seem intuitive, it suggests that maximum allowable PPV for UAFs should then consider the height of the RC frame as well.
may resist EIGMs of higher PPVs at the same principle frequency, provided that the RC frames are based on the same design code. While seeming intuitive, the postulate suggests that a PPV limit for UAFs should then consider the height of the RC frame as well.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by Defence Science and Technology Agency through the NTU-DSTA Joint R&D Project titled Damage Assessment of Lightly Reinforced Concrete BeamColumn Joints under Reversed Cyclic Loading (PTRC-CSE/ LEO/98.02). Also, the authors would like to bid farewell to Assoc. Prof. Zhao Jian, whose research contribution has been significant to Protective Technology Research Centre.
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References
[1] Zhao J, Li HB, Wu MB, Li TJ (1999) Dynamic uniaxial compression tests on a granite, International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 36: 273-277. [2] Hao H, Wu YK, Ma GQ, Zhou YX (2001) Characteristics of surface ground motions induced by blasts in jointed rock mass, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 21: 85-98. [3] Lu Y, Hao H, Ma GW, Zhou YX (2001) Simulation of structural response under high-frequency ground excitation, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 30: 307-325. [4] Pan TC, Dhakal RP, Lim CL (2004) Damage assessment of reinforced concrete building frames subjected to explosion-induced ground motions, Technical Report No. 2004-01, NTU-DSTA Joint R&D Project on Damage Assessment of Lightly Reinforced Concrete BeamColumn Joints under Reversed Cyclic Loading (PTRCCSE/LEO/98.02). [5] NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, AC/258-D/ 258: Manual on NATO Safety Principles of the Storage of Ammunition and Explosives, Brussels, Belgium, 1997.
Conclusion
In this article, the results of a simplified methodology for the damage assessment of a 2-storey RC frame are presented. The results show that the simplified methodology produces similar results to those obtained from material-level modeling, for frequencies of explosion-induced ground motions (EIGMs) less than about 100 Hz. Thus, this simplified methodology can produce quick damage assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) frames subjected to EIGMs. Lastly, based on the damage assessment of a 2-storey and 6-storey RC frame, it is postulated that a lighter and stiffer RC frame
SPATIAL INFORMATION
Three-Dimensional Geological Map of Singapore with 3D GIS Software
Zhang Xianhui (zh0002ui@ntu.edu.sg) Tor Yam Khoon (cyktor@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Traditional geological maps, which illustrate the distribution and orientation of geological structures and materials on a 2D ground surface, are no longer sufficient for storing, displaying and analysing geological information. It is also difficult and expensive to update them, especially for coverage over large areas. Advances in computer technologies and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) make it possible to create three-dimensional and interactive geological maps. Using 3DGIS software, the 3D geological map of Singapore was constructed. The data used consist of, firstly, 136 topographical maps of Singapore, in DXF format at a scale of 1:5000 (Figure 1) and with 3D coordinates of roads, contour lines and other information and, secondly, fourteen geological formations in 2D polygons and in DWG format. The steps involved are: (1) create grid-based Digital Elevation Model (DEM) using the 136 topographic maps; (2) overlay the 2D geological and reservoir vector data onto the DEM and the road network, contour lines as well; (3) create an integrated database holding all the 3D models and their attributes.
Digital Elevation Model of Singapore

The basis of such a 3D geological map is a DEM, which is a digital representation of the terrain surface in 3D. As building DEM of coastal regions has one extra step than that of inland regions (Figure 2), the 136 topographic maps of Singapore are organized into 29 workspaces - 23 of them comprise coastal areas and the remaining 6 are of inland areas. The contour lines, roads, coastal lines are extracted for separate DEM generation using the TinModel module. These DEMs are integrated as a whole DEM of Singapore using the 3DDB module. The final gridded DEM data with 5-metre intervals for the whole Singapore is obtained (Figure 3). The file size is about 574MB.
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Figure 2. Flowchart of creating Singapore DEM Figure 1. Map index of Singapore
The 3DGIS software is a research software developed by the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS) of Wuhan University, P.R.China, and it includes four modules, namely, TinModel (Triangulated Irregular Network Model), 3DCM (Three Dimensional City Model), 3DDB (Three Dimensional Database Builder), and 3DViewer (Three Dimensional Viewer).
Figure 3. Integrated DEM of Singapore
SPATIAL INFORMATION
3D Geological Map of Singapore

The available geological formations comprise 2D polygons. Draping them on the DEM can be achieved in two steps using the 3DCM module. The first step is to overlay the boundaries of the polygons onto the DEM surface. When creating a 3D model, the software prompts users to define whether the elevations are relative or absolute. Selecting a relative elevation of 0 m ensures that the boundary of the geological surface has the same elevations as the DEM. The second step is to populate the interior of the geological surface by 3D points using the Interpolate DEM function. This function extracts the respective elevation data from the underlying DEM. The centrelines of the roads (expressway, major road and minor road) are available from the 1:10000 scale planimetric maps. These 2D centrelines can be converted to 3D centrelines by selecting the relative elevation parameter the same approach as creating the geological surfaces model. The convert line to road function was applied to transform the 3D centrelines to roads with the stipulated width and texture. The 3D contour lines from the 1:5000 scale topographical maps can be imported directly using the 3DCM module by selecting absolute elevation. No interpolation is needed.
description and the mechanical properties, such as Youngs modulus are linked to the geological model. Reservoir model has the name property only. Road model has road name and classification properties. These databases are created in 3DCM using the built-in file-based database management system. Using 3DDB, the relational databases of separate 3D models can be put together to produce an integrated database which can be seamlessly and dynamically viewed in 3DViewer. Figure 4 shows the display of the 3D geological map in 3DViewer. The blue surfaces on the DEM are reservoirs. Other surfaces show the various surface geology formations. The green and red lines present the expressways and major roads, respectively.
Figure 4. 3D geological map of Singapore
Integrated Database of 3D Geological Map of Singapore

In order to facilitate users in viewing and querying the 3D models of the geological surfaces in a seamless manner, a relational database was built to hold the geometric and the attributes information of the geological surfaces, reservoirs, roads and contours models. The geological name, age,
Conclusions and Recommendations

The processes of creating a 3D surface geological map of Singapore using the 3DGIS software have been briefly presented. This map is capable of storing vast amounts of information and attribute data can be easily and conveniently retrieved. Progress is on-going to build up the subsurface geological structures as well as facilities.
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TRANSPORTATION
Functional Framework for an Optimum Liner Service Network Planning System
Lam Soi Hoi (soihoi.lam@pmail.ntu.edu.sg) Lam Siu Lee, Jasmine (sllam@ntu.edu.sg) Chuang Min-Hsiang, Gary (mhchuang@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The planning of shipping liner networks requires a large amount of data and technical knowledge. The existing approach is normally driven by the use of a variety of data with mixed certainty and accuracy. The optimum liner service network planning system being developed is aimed at integrating the various data sources with an optimisation module, which captures the essential relationship in the planning of the shipping liner network. A knowledge base will be developed to capture the domain and technical knowledge used in the design of the network and to interact with the optimisation module to yield the most desired solution. The results will be displayed graphically and in structured pages consisting of charts and tables, as well as printed reports to satisfy the needs by the users for purposes of validation and actual usage. The functional framework is presented for an automated system that integrates the experiences from the planners and optimisation routines to optimally design shipping routes, as well as providing a rich set of sensitivity analysis information to aid the planning process.
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Figure 1. Overall structure
Overall structure
Figure 1 shows the proposed overall structure. Basically the structure can be considered as a three-tier structure. Tier one (layer one) is the general user interface that interacts with the users to obtain the input and produce output in the desired format. Tier two (layer two) consists of the major functions that do the calculation, decision making, and optimisation for the scheduling system. This layer also interacts with the database so that it can fetch, add, delete, and update the database when necessary. It also has to ensure the integrity of the database. The final tier (layer three) can be considered as the maintenance module. This is the only module that allows the other departments, such as the finance and logistics departments, to interact with the database. They can add and update the database when there is a necessity and the change will be reflected in the previous two layers so that it can ensure the integrity of the database.
Major functionalities
After a short random poll survey on the market and potential users of the system, it was found that there are several desired functionalities for the system. 1. Proforma Schedule (PFS) This schedule is the beginning of a service. The user will assign the desired route with the individual ports listed. With the automated system, the fields will be filled in automatically with preset values which can be altered by the user if necessary. The system will then calculate the relative results from the values to come out with the optimal date and time to assign the ship to individual ports. From here, the long term schedule for that service can be generated together with its revenue forecast. The system will be able to handle insertion and deletion of ports within the desired route and update the necessary fields once changes are made. 2. Sensitivity analysis The system will analyse the impacts of factors, such as fuel cost, freight rate, and load factors, on the cost of
TRANSPORTATION
launching a particular service. The system should update the information as soon as possible so that the analysis results can be deemed as near real time. All the factors affecting the sensitivity of the service can be assigned and chosen by the user so that it can be more versatile. 3. Setting high/low seasons As per other companies in the service industry, liner shipping also has seasons. The service rates are higher during the peak seasons and much lower during the offpeak seasons. The system will determine whether the service starts in the peak or off-peak seasons and decide on the deployment of that service. According to the vessel size assigned, the user can decide on the frequency of the service. 4. Cash flow tables As certain services will not have income especially during the first launch or first few days of the services, the system will calculate the cash flows so that the management will learn the capital required to launch certain services and the number of days before actually receiving positive revenue.
5.
Performance analysis of services After the launch of a certain service, the management will like to evaluate the performance of that service. The system will compare the generated results with the actual results recorded by the staff. After the comparison, it will generate tables and graphs to show the differences between the expected and the actual performance so that the user can fine tune the service to obtain optimal performance.
Conclusion
The optimum liner service network planning system will be developed as an intelligent decision support system, which is aimed at combining the domain knowledge of planners and optimisation based on a large set of data, to provide a planning tool that can greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the liner planning process.
Acknowledgements
This is a funded research project through the Maritime Innovation and Technology Fund.
Survey on Performance of a GPS-Based Vehicle Tracking and Communication System for Container Transport in Logistics
Lam Soi Hoi (soihoi.lam@pmail.ntu.edu.sg) Piotr Olszewski (colsze@ntu.edu.sg) Wong Yiik Diew (cydwong@ntu.edu.sg)
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The application of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to track vehicles is on the increase in the logistics industry. The use of such technology allows for effective vehicle fleet management and enhances the service quality and operational efficiency in the industry. However, the use of such technologies in the logistics industry appears to be sporadic at present, despite the apparent demand to enhance the service efficiencies in the industry. Another key issue is the occurrence of misunderstandings between the dispatcher/ controller and a truck driver. A non-voice communication system such as the GPS-based location and text-based dispatch system used in the taxi industry will reduce conflict and misunderstanding. Using an on-board display system, the control centre of a transport company can communicate via Short Message Service (SMS) with its drivers wherever
and wherever they are located. Such an advanced fleet management system, which is mainly built upon a vehicle location system with advanced communication means, is pilot tested involving three freight companies in Singapore, arranged by SPRING Singapore and CDAS (Container Deport Association of Singapore). The total fleet of all the participating companies consisted of over 130 prime-movers and about 570 trailers. The GPS-based tracking and communication system consists of three main sub-systems: GPS-based asset location system, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) communication and SMS messaging system, and control centre technologies. Their relationships can be found in the following figure.
Transportation Assets
GPS-based tracking
On-board terminal
Server Digital Communication
Control Centre
Location and Communication Devices

Figure 1. Components of the GPS-based Tracking and Communication System
delivery jobs and an improvement in performance and productivity in terms of time input per container delivered. The average distance driven per container has been reduced by 15%. Mileage driven with unloaded trailer or without a trailer has decreased even more (19.5%). This is important because driving distance directly affects the cost of transport operations. These findings suggest improved scheduling and job assignment under the new tracking system. Although the study shows that after the introduction of the vehicle tracking system some improvements in productivity have been achieved, there is considerable scope for further system enhancements. The following developments are envisaged: the development of an optimised fleet management system, with the aim to minimise empty running and to maximise fleet utilisation, an integrated logistics information system, such as integration with port information to reduce time wastages, and the tracking of other information such as temperatures to support the required end-to-end control of temperature in the quality assurance of cold chain operations in Singapore.
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Figure 2 (a) working time, and (b) driving distance required for transporting one container
To evaluate the performance of the system, a before-andafter survey covering three companies was carried out in 2004 and 2005. The survey covered the characteristics of companies, their measurement of productivity and service quality. The data collection exercise resulted in capturing 43 truck-days of activities during the before period and 120 truck-days during the after period. A general reduction in the number of containers transported, working times and distance travelled per prime mover (PM) per day was observed. Figure 2 shows the changes in productivity (or working time) and driving distance per container. There are also reductions in both the average total working time (by 8%) and stop time (by 18%) per container in the after period. This indicates cutting down on idling time between
Acknowledgement
The authors appreciate the provision of data for analysing the performance reported in this article by CDAS and companies involved in the pilot study.
TRANSPORTATION
Investigation of a Car-Following Model Using a Desired Spacing Criterion

Tan Yan Weng (cywtan@ntu.edu.sg) Neo Aik Wee (awneo@pmail.ntu.edu.sg) Peter Hidas (P.Hidas@unsw.edu.au)* The time-lag T (not to be interpreted as the reaction time) is re-calculated for each vehicle at every time update as the following vehicle plans to get to the desired position behind the lead vehicle. The following approximation for T is used: (4) where Bnorm is the normal deceleration with a value less than zero.
Introduction
Car-following theory is an important element of traffic modelling that has been researched in various forms for over 50 years. It attempts to describe the interaction of two or more individual vehicles in a single lane of traffic and is a main component in the development of microscopic traffic simulation models. Most car-following models that have been developed were calibrated with freeway data. However, the focus of traffic management schemes is often associated with conditions other than those found on freeways. There is therefore a need to assess network performance at the urban arterial level using models more suited for interrupted flow conditions.
Field data collection

The model was calibrated using field data collected along North Bridge Road between the intersections with Bras Basah Road and Middle Road. The traffic situation was recorded over several hours during the weekday mid-day and evening periods using a digital video camera from the 25th storey of a nearby building. The road section consisted of four lanes; only one straight-through lane of the approach (third lane from kerb) was studied (Figure 1).
The desired spacing car-following model

The car-following model selected for investigation in this study assumes that when a vehicle n approaches and follows a lead vehicle (n 1) at any time t, the driver tries to adjust his acceleration so as to obtain a desired spacing after a time-lag of T seconds, Dn(t + T), i.e. (1) where xn1 and xn are the positions of the lead and following vehicles respectively, and is the driver judgement error parameter (a random value with mean of 1.0), variable in each time interval. The parameter allows for the inability of drivers in the real world to attain the desired spacing exactly due to errors in estimating the leaders movement. The desired spacing is assumed to be a linear function of vehicle speed: (2) where is the speed of following vehicle n at time (t + T), n and n are the individual desired spacing parameters of following vehicle n to be calibrated. The acceleration of the following vehicle at time t, , when close-following is given by: (3)
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Figure 1. Photograph showing view from observation point
The video images were projected onto a white board to the largest extent possible. Lane markings were used as physical markers to draw transverse lines across the carriageway; these markers were then used to determine vehicle position every 1 second along the study lane. The dataset for model calibration comprised 14 platoons with a total of 85 vehicles, while the validation dataset had 3 platoons with 24 vehicles. Vehicles were classified into car, light and heavy goods vehicle. Buses and motorcycles were excluded from analysis.
Model calibration and validation

Figure 2 shows the pattern of observed spacing plotted against speed for one such platoon C5 of four following vehicles (FV1-FV4) behind the lead vehicle. The solid line represents the phase when the following vehicle undergoes deceleration; the dashed line represents the acceleration phase. There was a strong, positive correlation between speed of the following vehicle and its distance to the lead vehicle. Vehicles travelling at high speeds require much larger gaps to stop in the event of the vehicle in front of them stopping. The slopes of the curves were relatively steeper for deceleration than for acceleration over the range of speeds examined, i.e. drivers tended to allow for a greater safety distance to the vehicle in front when decelerating than when accelerating. The deceleration and acceleration curves also tended to intersect at some value of speed.
The desired spacing parameters, n and n, were estimated for individual vehicles by linear regression with spacing as the dependent variable and speed as the independent variable. The n parameter (slope of the straight line, in seconds) controls the sensitivity of the following vehicle to attain a targeted spacing with changes in speed. The n parameter (y-intercept, in metres) is the stopped spacing, i.e. the average distance between vehicles when they are stationary in a queue. Both parameters were estimated for separate deceleration and acceleration phases. Figure 3 shows an example of the observed trajectories of four following vehicles in platoon C5 (blue dashed lines) superimposed with those predicted by the model (solid red lines). The agreement between observed and predicted trajectories was very close. Results of model validation are presented using platoon V1 which comprised passenger cars. Figure 4 shows the plot of observed positions for vehicles in platoon V1 versus modelled positions. The data points were spread out about the line of perfect agreement (thick black line) during both acceleration and deceleration phases. Most of the data points lay within the 2.5m band indicated by the red lines. The 5m band is shown by the blue lines.
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Figure 4. Observed versus modelled positions for vehicles in platoon V1
Figure 2. Observed spacing versus speed relationship for platoon C5
Conclusions
This study examined the performance of a car-following model using a desired spacing criterion which is assumed to be a linear function of speed. The desired spacing parameters were readily calibrated using field data for different vehicle combinations in the speed range from 0 to 45 km/h. The use of separate desired spacing parameters for acceleration and deceleration reproduced the hysteresis loops due to the reaction delays in the acceleration phase. Comparisons of observed and modelled positions showed that the model was able to predict the trajectories of vehicles in a platoon reasonably well. Overall, the model was able to predict the individual spacing between vehicles to within 3% error. Further work is being carried out to extend the model to different driving environments and different lead-following vehicle combinations. * Peter Hidas is Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Australia.
Figure 3. Observed versus modelled trajectories for vehicles in platoon C5
TRANSPORTATION
Enhancement of Expressway Incident Detection through Algorithm Fusion

Henry S L Fan (chenryf@ntu.edu.sg) Mak Chin Long (cclmak@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Many studies focused on the development of a single Automatic Incident Detection Algorithm (AIDA) to detect incident occurrences, and the performance obtained had often been mixed. To address this issue, an algorithm fusion method was developed using 160 incident data collected from the Central Expressway (CTE) in Singapore. There are various methods to implement an effective and efficient algorithm fusion procedure including the application of optimization techniques (e.g., trial-and-error, simulated annealing, artificial neural networks). However, the effectiveness of these optimisation techniques in fusing a large number of algorithms has not been documented in the literature. This study is an exploratory work, and the promising results obtained here relative to the performance of existing algorithms set the direction of future refinement work.
achieve the desired performance for a study site. It is noted that the desired performance for a fused-algorithm may vary depending on the expectation of expressway operators, site characteristics, etc. This means a fused-algorithm has to be re-calibrated to adapt to local traffic conditions when there is a significant change in traffic environment. It is hoped that the methodology proposed here can be adopted elsewhere to improve incident detection ability. The proposed algorithm fusion method involves the calibration of component algorithms; selection of fused-false alarm rate (FAR); determination of algorithm weights; and determination of fusion threshold values (see Mak and Fan, 2006). To measure the effectiveness of an AIDA, it is common to use the relationship between incident detection rate (DR) and FAR. DR is the percentage of incidents (in the database) detected by an AIDA. FAR is the number of false alarms raised as a percentage of all non-incident intervals in the database. In addition, the efficiency of an algorithm in detecting a set of incidents is typically represented by a measure known as the Mean-Time-To-Detect (MTTD).
The algorithm fusion process is illustrated schematically in Figure 1. The Dual-Variable (DV) and COmbined Detector Evaluation (CODE) algorithms are selected because they were the best-performing algorithms developed for the CTE site (Mak and Fan, 2005b). The Double Exponential Smoothing (DES), Standard Normal Deviate (SND), California Algorithm#7 (Algorithm#7) and Minnesota algorithms are used because these are commonly used for expressway incident detection (Mak and Fan, 2005a). These algorithms were originally developed to use loop-based traffic occupancy measurements for freeways in the United States. All of these algorithms are fused together in this study to
Algorithm fusion
81 Three algorithm fusion options were formulated and are described in the following sections. Fusion Option I Enveloping Individual Performance Curves: This involved the construction of an envelope for the performance curves of the algorithms included in the fusion. The resulting curve reflected the detection ability of the fused-algorithms. In this study, the performance curves
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Figure 1. Schematic diagram of algorithm fusion
were significant improvements in detection performance especially for FAR values from 0.2% to 1.0%, illustrating the potential of algorithm fusion in enhancing the detection of incidents along the CTE.
Comparison of algorithm fusion options

Fusion Option I is the easiest to carry out, and acts as a reference for evaluating the performance of a fused-algorithm. Fusion Option II and Fusion Option III outperformed Fusion Option I significantly over a range of FAR from 0.2% to 1.0% with DR above 80%. Although Fusion Option II gave slightly better performance than Fusion Option III, the effort involved in selecting the component algorithms and the limited choices in specifying the total incident score (fusion detection threshold value) may restrict its application. From that perspective, Fusion Option III is better as it gives promising results with an easy-to-repeat calibration procedure and the fusion threshold value can be varied from 0 to 1, thereby providing a wider range of desired performance. One can see that at a DR of 90%, Fusion Option I gave an FAR of about 0.90%, while Fusion Option II and Fusion Option III yielded smaller FAR values of 0.26% and 0.40% respectively. From the efficiency perspective, there was no significant difference among these fusion options. The Average MTTD value was 137.0 seconds using Fusion Option I, 130.7 seconds for Fusion Option II and 132.1 seconds for Fusion Option III.
Figure 2. Comparison of performance of algorithm fusion options
of DV and CODE algorithms were combined, and the resulting curve served as the lowest level of performance that a fusedalgorithm need to achieve (see Figure 2). Fusion Option II Selecting Best-Performing Algorithms: Each of the algorithms included were given an equal weight of unity value, and the excluded algorithms were assigned a weight of 0 value. The following groupings at a fused-FAR level of 1% are used to demonstrate the potential of this algorithm-fusion option in selecting a group of algorithms that would provide the best detection performance. Group 1: comprises the SND, DV, Algorithm #7, Minnesota and CODE algorithms Group 2: comprises the DV, Algorithm #7, Minnesota and CODE algorithms Group 3: comprises the DV, Algorithm #7 and CODE algorithms Figure 2 shows the performance of these three algorithm groups (with a total incident score of at least 2) together with the performance curves of other fusion options. Of the three groupings in this option, Group 3 achieved the largest improvement when compared with the Fusion Option I curve. The significant improvement in the low FAR region is consistent with the objective of this study which is to achieve high DR at low FAR values. Fusion Option III Applying Different Algorithm Weights: This method used the outputs of all the component algorithms and assigned different weights to each algorithm to reflect the reliability of the decision raised by each algorithm. This eliminated the need to select a group of algorithms with good performance which was the case in Fusion Option II. The algorithm weights were determined based on the reasoning that each algorithm should be assigned a weight to reflect appropriately its ability in detecting a set of incidents relative to other algorithms. Here, the DR and FAR values of individual algorithms at each of the fused-FAR levels were used to compute the weights for the algorithm studied. The performance curves of the Fusion Option III algorithms (at the fused-FAR levels of 1% and 1.5%) are compared with those of other fusion options in Figure 2. One can see there
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Conclusions
The fused-algorithms using options II and III outperformed the DV and CODE algorithms which were the best-performing algorithms developed earlier for the same studied site. At a detection rate of 90%, these fused-algorithms were able to reduce the false alarm rate by more than 55%. Therefore, the algorithm fusion method described here can provide enhanced detection performances, and can serve as an alternative technique to the commonly practiced approach of either developing a new AIDA or applying the existing AIDAs to detect incident occurrences on expressways.
References
[1] Mak, C.L., and Fan, H.S.L. (2005a). Transferability of expressway incident detection algorithms to Singapore and Melbourne, Journal of Transportation Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 131, No. 2, 101-111. [2] Mak, C.L., and Fan, H.S.L. (2005b). Evaluation of the transferability of incident detection algorithms developed for Singapore expressways, Transportation Planning and Technology, Vol. 28, No. 5, 315-339. [3] Mak, C.L., and Fan, H.S.L. (2006). Algorithm Fusion for Detecting Incidents on Singapores Central Expressway, Journal of Transportation Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 132, (forthcoming).
TRANSPORTATION
Road Traffic Accident Models for Signalised Four-Legged Junctions

Aine Kusumawati (PS085388@ntu.edu.sg) Wong Yiik Diew (cydwong@ntu.edu.sg)
In road safety studies, there is much effort in relating road accidents with operational and engineering factors such as traffic volume, traffic control and road/junction geometry. A popular approach involves relating observed accident counts (at defined entities) to the underlying traffic volumes by means of regression models with error structure following several discrete statistical distributions. The single, independent variable of traffic volume basically serves as both a metric of exposure as well as a proxy indicator for inherent risk associated with the operating environment. Past studies have revealed that fairly straightforward accident-traffic volume relationships can model accident occurrences quite satisfactorily, and several local relationships have been developed in this study. Accident-traffic volume models, established using regression analysis, were employed to study accident occurrences at signalised junctions in Singapore. The models used 1999-2003 annual casualty (defined as fatal and personal injury) accident counts provided by Traffic Police Department at a sample of 171 four-legged signalised junctions located in the western part of Singapore. Traffic count data at the junctions were obtained from the inductance loops operated by the Land Transport Authority; these loops have been found to give overall traffic counts to generally within 10% accuracy. Altogether, three functional forms were investigated, as follows: Model 1: Model 2: Model 3: where, (1) (2) (3)
All the three NB models had a good fit based on the Pearson X2 and Scaled Deviance G2 statistics at the 5% significance level. The coefficient estimate for variable ln(Qpt) was found not to be significantly different from zero in model 3, hence model 3 was not favoured. Model 2 was somewhat better than model 1 by virtue of its slightly larger (less negative) loglikelihood value and slightly smaller AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) value, but model 1 is the recommended model as it has the distinct advantage of being a simpler model given that only the total entry volume is required for modelling and application.
Table 1. Negative Binomial models for signalised four-legged junctions Model 1 (NB): = exp( 10.380 + 1.011 x lnQ) or = 3.103 x 10-5(Q)1.011 Degrees of freedom Pearson X2 Scaled Deviance G2 Log-likelihood value AIC value Variable Constant k lnQ Dispersion parameter 853 912.793 889.619 -1326.715 2657.430 Coefficient -10.380 1.011 0.617
2 0.05,853 = 922.1 2 0.05,853 = 922.1
t-ratio -12.877 13.323 8.839
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Model 2 (NB): = exp( 9.688 + 0.510 x lnQpQs) or = 6.203 x 10-5(QpQs)0.510 Degree of freedom Pearson X2 Scaled Deviance G2 Log-likelihood value AIC value Variable Constant k lnQpQs Dispersion parameter 853 904.195 884.452 -1311.486 2626.973 Coefficient -9.688 0.510 0.568
2 0.05,853 = 922.1 2 0.05,853 = 922.1
Q Qp Qs
= annual casualty accident count at a site for a given year (1999-2003) = total daily junction entry volume at the site for the given year = total daily junction entry volume of major cross-road at the site for the given year = total daily junction entry volume of minor cross-road at the site for the given year
t-ratio -13.589 14.122 8.621
Model 3 (NB): = exp( 8.514 + 0.167 x lnQp + 0.755 x lnQs) or = 2.007 x 10-4(Qp)0.167 (Qs)0.755 Degree of freedom Pearson X2 Scaled Deviance G2 Log-likelihood value AIC value Variable Constant k lnQp lnQs Dispersion parameter 852 854.771 847.106 -1305.009 2616.018 Coefficient -8.514 0.167 0.755 0.549
2 0.05,852 = 921.0 2 0.05,852 = 921.0
k, , 1, 2 = parameters to be estimated Model 1 assumes that accident occurrence is related to the sum of entering traffic from all legs while model 2 and model 3 assume that accident occurrence is related to the cross-product of entering traffic from the major and minor cross-roads. Four types of nonlinear regression models were considered: Poisson, negative-binomial (NB), zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) and zeroinflated negative-binomial (ZINB). The NB models were found to be the most suitable models with significant dispersion values (parameter ). The results of the NB models are shown in Table 1.
t-ratio -11.236 1.646 9.023 8.582
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Structure of Secondary Flows in Open Channel with Longitudinal Bedforms
Zhi-Qian Wang (zqwang@ntu.edu.sg) Nian-Sheng Cheng (cnscheng@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The primary motion in open channel flows is commonly subject to secondary currents, either in the vertical or spanwise directions or both. In an open channel with a generally flat bed, secondary flows often appear as streamwise-orientated circulations. Such circulating secondary flows can be induced by different causes. According to Prandtl, there exist two mechanisms responsible for the generation of streamwise circulations. The first mechanism is associated with the skewing of the mean flow, i.e. the non-uniformity of mean flow in the streamwise direction. For example, in curved channels or meandering rivers, flow may circulate in the cross-sectional plane either driven by centrifugal or transverse pressure gradient. Such a secondary flow is called Prandtls first kind of secondary flow. The generation of this kind of secondary flow is essentially an inviscid process, and thus can occur either in turbulent or in laminar flow. The second mechanism for the formation of streamwise circulation is related to the non-homogeneity and anisotropy of turbulence. Due to the lateral imbalance of turbulent stresses, streamwise vortices may be formed, and then these vortices may be stretched and amalgamated in the transverse direction, resulting in large-scale flow circulations. Secondary flow so generated is called Prandtls second kind of secondary flow, and also turbulence-induced secondary flow. There are a variety of turbulence-induced secondary flows in natural streams, which are caused by different factors, such as asymmetry of channel boundaries, free surface effects, variations in bed conditions and instabilities in turbulent flows. Those associated with longitudinal bedforms were investigated in this study. Secondary flows generated by longitudinal bedforms often appear as pairing, counter-rotating flow cells in the cross section plane. Such secondary flows are usually called cellular secondary flows. Although the phenomena of cellular secondary flows and longitudinal bedforms have been widely studied, the relevant knowledge, especially for flows, is still limited. Due to the difficulties encountered in measurement, the characteristics of cellular secondary flows are not well understood yet. To further understand the characteristics of cellular secondary flows, a series of experiments was carried out in this study.
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generating cellular secondary flows. These bedforms are categorized into bed strips and bed ridges. The bed strips, characterized by lateral periodic variations in the bed roughness, comprised smooth and sediment-roughened plates whose surfaces were set at the same level across the channel. The bed ridges were characterized by lateral periodic variations only in the bed elevation. The flow depths were all chosen to be nearly the same as the average width of strips or ridges. This was determined based on typical values of the ratio of flow depth to wavelength of longitudinal bedforms reported in previous experimental and field observations. A Dantec LDA system, FlowLite 2D, was employed to measure the vertical and longitudinal velocity components. A DOP2000 ultrasonic pulsed Doppler velocimeter manufactured by Signal Processing (Lausanne, Switzerland) was used to measure the transverse velocity.
Structure of Secondary Flows

For Case S75, the widths of the rough and smooth bed strips were specifically set to be equal, and thus the average width of strips, , was equal to the flow depth h. The distribution pattern of V varied with the bed configuration. Downflow occurred over the rough strips while upflow over the smooth strips. The maximum vertical velocity was about 2.0% of the average velocity of the primary flow in the central region of the channel. The sidewall effect was significant only for the zone which extended about 2h from the sidewall. Figure 1 shows a pair of counter-rotating flow circulations. The breadth of the flow cells is nearly equal to the strip width, and the height of the flow cells is the same as the flow depth. The mean magnitude of the velocity vectors is about 0.01Um and the maximum magnitude is about 0.02Um. The two lateral flows meet near the smooth strip and then go
1.0 0.8 0.6
y/h
0.01Um
0.4 0.2
Experiments
The experiments were carried out in a straight rectangular tilting flume that was 14 m long, 0.6 m wide and 0.6 m deep. Six sets of fixed longitudinal bedforms were used for
0.0 -2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0
z/ Figure 1. Velocity vectors of secondary flows measured for Case S75
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upwards, separating near the free surface. The opposite phenomenon can be observed over the rough strip. The secondary flow cell delineated in Figure 1 is characterized by its typical dimension, which actually is defined by the flow depth in the vertical direction and by the strip width in the transverse direction. Considering the periodic and symmetrical characteristics of the secondary flow structure, the stream function, (y, z), may be expressed in the sine or cosine form: (1) in which V r, L r = typical velocity and length scales, respectively; = y/h; = z/; y = the initial phase in the vertical direction; z = the initial phase in the spanwise direction; and = the average strip width. By differentiating the stream function, the vertical and transverse velocity, V and W, can be expressed, respectively, to be (2)
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 -1.0
V/(0.02Um)
y/h
-0.9
-0.8
-0.7
-0.6
-0.5
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0.0
z/
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 -1.0
W/(0.02Um)
y/h
-0.9
-0.8
-0.7
-0.6
-0.5
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0.0
z/
Figure 2. Comparison between measured and predicted results of V and W for Case S75. The predicted values are denoted by crosses and the computed results are denoted by solid lines
cellular secondary flows. Thus, the dimensionless intensity may be related to the relative shear stress variation as follows, (4)
(3) Figure 2 shows the comparison between the measured and predicted results of W and V. In the figure, the computed results are denoted by solid lines, and the crosses represent the measured velocities normalized by 0.02Um . It can be seen that in spite of the simple mathematical formulation proposed for the stream function, the predicted velocity distributions are reasonably in good agreement with the experimental results. This formulation can be further modified for characterizing other irregular secondary flow structures.
where Um = the depth-averaged velocity of the primary flow; and bxm= the average bed shear stress. Bed perturbation either in bed roughness height or bed surface elevation can be regarded equivalent in term of inducing the lateral variation in streamwise bed shear stress. Furthermore, we also assume that the shear stress variation induced by the elevation perturbation and that due to the roughness perturbation are additive. With these considerations, Equation (4) can be substantiated by the experimental data in the following form (5) where ; h max , h min = maximum and minimum flow depth; bmax, bmin = highest and lowest bed elevation; and nmax, nmin, nm = maximum, minimum and average Manning coefficient. Equation (5) can be also used for estimating the maximum vertical velocity and thus for computing the velocity distributions within the secondary flow cell.
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Secondary Flow Index

The spatially-averaged magnitude of the vertical velocity of the secondary flow, |V|m , is adopted here to evaluate the intensity. It is known that bed shear stress difference would cause the imbalance of turbulent stresses in the flow field, which would finally lead to the streamwise vortex and thus
Which is the Best Time of Concentration Formula for Overland Flow?

Tommy Wong Sai Wai (cswwong@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The overland time of concentration is an important parameter in many drainage design methods. Combined with the time of travel in a channel, it becomes the time of concentration of an entire basin. The latter is commonly used as a basis for the determination of the design discharge via the rainfall intensity-duration-frequency curves. As such, the overland time of concentration has a major influence on the accuracy of the design discharge. Despite its importance, engineers are often bewildered by the array of formulae that are available in the literature and are uncertain about the accuracy of these formulae. The article compares estimates from seven formulae with experimental values from two bays: concrete and grass.
Federal Aviation Administrations (1970) Formula (5) where Cr = runoff coefficient. Yen and Chows (1983) Formula (6) Chen and Wongs (1993) Formula (7) where is the kinematic viscosity of water (m2 s-1), and C and k are constants relating the Darcy-Weisbach resistance coefficient, f, to the Reynolds number, R, as follows: f = C / Rk (8)
Time of concentration formulae

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The seven time of concentration formulae used in the comparison are: Izzards (1946) Formula
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Comparison of time of concentration formulae

(1) The estimates from the seven formulae are compared with the experimental values for two bays: concrete and grass. Each bay is 25 m long by 1 m wide and with a slope of 2%. Figure 1 shows the comparison for the formulae that account for rainfall intensity. Figure 2 shows the comparison for the formulae that do not account for rainfall intensity, and it is apparent that they are only valid for a limited range of rainfall intensities. Further, a objective function, R2, is used to assess
where to is the time of concentration for overland flow, in is the net rainfall intensity, Ni is the retardance coefficient, Lo is the length of overland flow, and So is the overland slope. The units are min for to, mm h-1 for in, m for Lo, and m m-1 for So, and these units apply to all the subsequent time of concentration formulae [Eqs. (2)-(7)]. Kerbys (1959) Formula (2) where Nk is the retardance coefficient. Morgali and Linsleys (1965) Formula (3) where no is the Manning resistance coefficient. Woolhiser and Liggetts (1967) Formula (4)
Figure 1. Comparison of time of concentration formulae that account for rainfall intensity with experimental data
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Table 1. Rankings of time of concentration formulae in terms of R2 value for concrete bay Rank Time of Concentration Formula 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Eq. Eq. Eq. Eq. Eq. Eq. Eq. (7)* with C = 3 & k = 0.5 (Chen and Wong, 1993) (4)* with no = 0.014 (Woolhiser and Liggett, 1967) (3)* with no = 0.014 (Morgali and Linsley, 1965) (1)* with Ni = 0.007 (Izzard, 1946) (6) with no = 0.014 (Yen and Chow, 1983) (5) with Cr = 0.9 (Federal Aviation Administration, 1970) (2) with Nk = 0.02 (Kerby, 1959) R2 0.92 0.89 0.29 0.00 - 0.02 - 0.71 - 0.80
* formula accounts for rainfall intensity Table 2. Rankings of time of concentration formulae in terms of R2 value for grass bay Rank Time of Concentration Formula 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Eq. (7)* with C = 1 & k = 0 (Chen and Wong, 1993) Eq. (4)* with no = 0.04 (Woolhiser and Liggett, 1967) Eq. (6) with no = 0.04 (Yen and Chow, 1983) Eq. (3)* with no = 0.04 (Morgali and Linsley, 1965) Eq. (5) with Cr = 0.3 (Federal Aviation Administration, 1970) Eq. (2) with Nk = 0.4 (Kerby, 1959) Eq. (1) with Ni = 0.06 (Izzard, 1946) R2 0.75 0.44 0.36 -1.41 -65.86 -72.11 -409.35
Figure 2. Comparison of time of concentration formulae that do not account for rainfall intensity with experimental data
the goodness of fit between the estimated and the observed times of concentration. The objective function, R2, is defined as: (9) where too is the observed overland time of concentration, toe is the estimated overland time of concentration, and tom is the mean of all the observed overland times of concentration. The summations are taken over all the observed and their corresponding estimated values. A perfect agreement between the estimated and the observed gives a value of unity for R2. A poor agreement gives a negative value for R2. Tables 1 and 2 show two rankings of the formulae in terms of the R2 values. It is apparent that from both rankings, formulae that account for rainfall intensity generally give better agreement with the experimental data. The tables also show that the time of concentration formula that gives the best agreement with the experimental data is the Chen and Wongs formula [Eq. (7)].
* formula accounts for rainfall intensity
References
[1] Chen CN, and Wong TSW. (1993). Critical rainfall duration for maximum discharge from overland plane. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 119(9), 10401045. [2] Federal Aviation Administration. (1970). Airport drainage. Advisory Circular No. 150/5320-5B, Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. [3] Izzard CF. (1946). Hydraulics of runoff from developed surfaces. Proceedings of 26th Annual Meeting Highway Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., 129-150. [4] Kerby WS. (1959). Time of concentration for overland flow. Civil Engineering, 29(3), 60. [5] Morgali JR, and Linsley RK. (1965). Computer analysis of overland flow. Journal of Hydraulics Division, ASCE, 91(HY3), 81-100. [6] Woolhiser DA, and Liggett JA. (1967). Unsteady onedimensional flow over a plane - the rising hydrograph. Water Resources Research, 3(3), 753-771. [7] Yen BC, and Chow VT. (1983). Local design storms, Vol III. Report H 38 No. FHWA-RD-82/065, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
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Conclusions
The comparison of estimates from seven time of concentration formulae with experimental data from the concrete and grass bays shows that for the formulae that do not account for the rainfall intensity [Eqs. (2), (5), and (6)], they are only valid for a limited range of rainfall intensities. The formulae that account for the rainfall intensity [Eqs. (1), (3), (4) and (7)] generally give better agreement with the experimental data. Finally, the comparison shows that the time of concentration formula that gives the best agreement with the experimental data is the Chen and Wongs formula [Eq. (7)].
Effects of Meteorological and Hydrogeological Factors on Gross Recharge Percentage at Unconfined Sandy Aquifers with an Equatorial Climate
Stephen Tan Boon Kean (step0001@ntu.edu.sg) Shuy Eng Ban (cshuyeb@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
A thorough understanding of the rainfall recharge processes and their controlling factors are essential for recharge estimation and management of groundwater systems. Groundwater recharge is a much-studied process in the temperate, semi-arid and arid regions, as groundwater is often a major water source in these regions to meet the expanding urban, agricultural and industrial water requirements. This paper investigates the effects of various meteorological and hydrogeological factors on the recharge percentages, the rainfall-recharge relationships and the recharge threshold values at an unconfined sandy aquifer under an equatorial climate. The meteorological factors being studied include rainfall intensity, potential evaporation, relative humidity and air temperature. The hydrogeological factors are the vadose zone thickness and the soil hydraulic parameters of sand textures. Groundwater recharge in this paper follows the definition of [1], where recharge refers to rainwater that percolates downward and reaches the water table in excess of soil moisture deficit and soil evaporation, and is referred herein as gross recharge.
Results and Discussions

Correlation studies To investigate the impacts of various meteorological factors on the gross recharge percentage, correlation analyses were carried out between these factors and their corresponding gross recharge percentages. The results of the analyses are shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1. Correlations between gross recharge percentage and meteorological factors for different ranges of vadose zone thickness
Study Methodology
The numerical model used in the present study is the VS2DI. The model applies the nonlinear total hydraulic potential dependent Richards equation as the governing equation for fluid flow. The actual bare soil evaporation rates are computed implicitly by the program as the upward flux driven by pressure potential gradient between the soil and the atmosphere. In the present study, the van Genucthens water retention model was applied, as it had been found to be sufficiently accurate for practical purposes, and very useful even for porous materials exhibiting sharp curvature near saturation. The values of soil hydraulic parameters used for representing sand texture in the present study are those values calibrated for a reclaimed land site situated at the eastern coast of Singapore, named as the Changi Reclaimed Land. The calibrated values of the soil hydraulic parameters are: (porosity) s = 0.375; (residual moisture content) r = 0.052; (fitting parameter) = 0.002244 1/mm; (fitting parameter) = 2.247; and (saturated hydraulic conductivity) = 13.5 m/day. Gross recharge percentage appears to correlate well with rainfall intensity for all the ranges of vadose zone thickness, where its correlation coefficients fall between 0.70 and 0.88. These results indicate that rainfall intensity has the most significant impact on gross recharge percentage for a wide range of vadose zone thickness, among all the tested meteorological factors. As soil evaporation is a function of potential evaporation rate, relative humidity and air temperature, the correlation results imply that the impact of soil evaporation on gross recharge percentage becomes more noticeable when the vadose zone thickness is larger than 2.5m. Rainfall-recharge relationship The rainfall-recharge relationships for the 4 ranges of vadose zone thickness are shown in Figure 2. Obviously, the gross recharge percentage increases as rainfall intensity increases. Its sensitivity to rainfall intensity is generally very high for rainfall intensity lower than 25mm/ day, but decreases dramatically as rainfall intensity increases. These rainfall-recharge characteristics can be defined well by a normal-log relationship, where the coefficients of
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Sensitivity to Soil Hydraulic Parameters

In this study, the influence of soil hydraulic parameters on gross recharge percentage was investigated. This could be achieved through investigating the sensitivity of Uz (average vertical velocity of fluid flow in the vadose zone) to the soil hydraulic parameters, as Uz has been found to have the most significant impact on the residence time tR [3]. Among the soil hydraulic parameters tested, Uz was found to be sensitive to s and s , and fairly sensitive to , but not sensitive to r and (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Rainfall-recharge relationships for different ranges of vadose zone thickness
determination of the curves are generally high as shown in Figure 2. These equations could be applied directly to estimate gross recharge percentages for individual rainfall events, as the equations were developed from datasets that were generated based on individual rainfall events. To estimate gross recharge percentages for rainfall clusters, the application of these equations needs further adjustments as rainfall recharge characteristics at unconfined sandy aquifers were found to be different between individual rainfall events and rainfall clusters [2]. Gross recharge percentage appears to depend strongly too on the vadose zone thickness. Gross recharge percentages are much higher for shallow water table conditions (1.0 to 2.5m), compared to intermediate depth of water table (2.5 to 4.0m) as depicted in Figure 2. However, its sensitivity to the vadose zone thickness is more significant under low rainfall intensity (<25mm/day), and decreases as rainfall intensity increases. Recharge Threshold By integrating uncertainties associated with the regressed coefficients, the probable range of recharge threshold for each range of vadose zone thickness was estimated. The estimated ranges of recharge threshold for unconfined sandy aquifers under an equatorial climate are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Estimated ranges of recharge threshold values for unconfined sandy aquifers under an equatorial climate Vadose Zone Thickness (m) Range of Recharge Threshold (mm/day) 1.0 < VZ 2.0 2.0 < VZ 2.5 2.5 < VZ 3.0 3.0 < VZ 4.0 0 0.1 0.5 1.1 0.8 4.1 1.8 8.0
Figure 3. Sensitivity of vertical flow velocity to soil hydraulic parameters
In order words, the derived rainfall-recharge relationships in Figure 2 could still be applied for estimating gross recharge percentages for sand textures with s or s , whose values are not significantly different from the calibrated values in the present study. Otherwise, some adjustments would need to be carried out before the derived GR-I relationships can be used [3].
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Conclusions
This study investigates the effects of various meteorological and hydrogeological factors on the gross recharge percentages, the rainfall-recharge relationships and the recharge threshold values at an unconfined sandy aquifer under an equatorial climate. The correlation analyses show that rainfall intensity has the most significant impact on the gross recharge percentage for a wide range of vadose zone thickness, among all the tested meteorological factors. The rainfall-recharge relationships could generally be well defined by a normal-log relationship. The rainfall-recharge relationships derived here are applicable for yielding estimates of gross recharge percentages for unconfined sandy aquifers under an equatorial climate, using rainfall intensity and vadose zone thickness as input variables. These equations could be applied directly to estimate gross recharge percentages for individual rainfall events. Applying the rainfall-recharge relationships, recharge thresholds were estimated for unconfined sandy aquifers under an equatorial climate. The recharge threshold values were found to depend strongly on the thickness of vadose zone.
For vadose zone thickness less than 2.0m, almost all rainfall intensities are capable of producing gross recharges at unconfined sandy aquifers under an equatorial climate, as the recharge threshold is generally negligible. Nevertheless, the results show that recharge threshold values increase significantly as vadose zone thickness increases.
From the sensitivity analyses, porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity were found to have the most significant effects on the gross recharge percentage among all the tested soil hydraulic parameters.
[2] Tan BKS, Shuy EB, Chua HCL, Yee WK. Studies on groundwater recharge characteristics at a reclaimed land site with an equatorial climate using time series and spectral analyses. Hydrological Processes (Accepted). [3] Tan BKS, Shuy EB, Chua HCL. Effects of meteorological and hydrogeological factors on gross recharge percentage at unconfined sandy aquifers with an equatorial climate. Hydrological Processes. (Submitted).
References
[1] Sophocleous M. 1991. Combining the soil water balance and water level fluctuation method to estimate natural groundwater recharge: practical aspects. Journal of Hydrology 124: 229-241.
Field Column Study of Organic Removal Efficiency in a Shallow Vadose Zone

Leong Chorng Min Melvin (melvin.cmleong@gmail.com), Chua Hock Chye Lloyd (chcchua@ntu.edu.sg), Lim Teik Thye (cttlim@ntu.edu.sg), Shuy Eng Ban (cshuyeb@ntu.edu.sg), Tan Soon Keat (ctansk@ntu.edu.sg), Lo Yat Man Edmond (cymlo@ntu.edu.sg), Tay Tiong Lee Stephen and Tay Joo Hwa (cjhtay@ntu.edu.sg)
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Introduction
Studies using laboratory columns have generally been used to investigate the Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT) process. Laboratory columns, however, require the repacking of soils and cause disturbance to soil particle orientation. Laboratory conditions also do not reflect actual field conditions. Therefore, for this study, a field column under undisturbed conditions was used. The column was installed in-situ at the Changi East Reclamation site with minimal disturbance to the soil inside the column and the test was conducted under actual conditions in the field. The objectives of this study were to determine, under field conditions, organic removal efficiencies with varying infiltration rates under different operating conditions (saturated or unsaturated), using an undisturbed sand column infiltrated with chlorinated secondary treated wastewater.
Figure 1 Schematic diagram of field installation
effluent was obtained fortnightly from a nearby wastewater treatment plant with the following characteristics: pH = 6.9 0.2, Conductivity = 876 195 S/cm, DOC = 7.5 0.7mg/ L and UVA(at 254nm) = 0.166 0.012cm-1. The operating cycles carried out during the experiment are shown in Table 1. An infiltration rate of 2 39m/d was initiated in cycle 1 and care was taken to gradually step up flows to achieve saturation (Cycle 2). The same stepping up procedure was carried out from Cycle 3 to 4. During extended periods under saturated conditions, biological clogging was observed to form at the soil surface inside the sand column. The clogging layer is usually made up of algal and microbial growth, and suspended solids deposited on the sand surface. Clogging layers can impede infiltration (see end of Cycle 4, Table 1). After day 52, the experiment was stopped and the column was dried. Preliminary results obtained during the first 52 days of testing are reported in this paper.
Field experiments
A diagram of the field experimental setup is shown in Figure 1. The field column is made of grade 304 stainless steel (0.5m diameter and 3.0m length). Installation of the column was carried out using an excavator by the direct push method, ensuring undisturbed soil conditions within the sand column. The column was installed to a depth of 2.5m below ground surface, with 0.5m of the column remaining above ground to allow for ponding during saturated runs. A multi-depth sampler was also installed in the middle of the column by the direct push method. A 15m3 fiberglass storage tank was used for on-site storage of the secondary effluent used during the experiment. Chlorinated secondary
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Table 1 Method of operation Mode of operation Length Flow rate Infiltration of cycle rate (m3/day) (days) (m/day) 15 11 8 10 0.47-0.97 1.100.06 (average) 0.48-0.86 0.980.14 (average) 0..46-0.23 2.39-4.94 5.590.30 (average) 2.48-4.38 5.010.72 (average) 2.32-1.18 Remarks
was observed below 1.50m. From Days 38 to 43, 65% to 100% of total DOC removed occurred in the first 0.75m of sand even in saturated conditions with infiltration rates above 4m/d. Greatest removals of 83% to 100% of DOC removed during Cycle 5 took place in the first 1.00m of sand. These sharp reductions in DOC removals coincided with a sudden increase in influent DOC for Days 43 to 45. The response of the column to sudden DOC loadings during saturated and unsaturated conditions can be compared in Cycles 3 and 4. A similar increase in influent DOC was observed in Days 28 and 29 during Cycle 3, with little effect on total DOC removal. Cycle 3, which is under unsaturated conditions, allows air to permeate into soil voids, unlike Cycle 4, which is probably under anoxic conditions in Days 43 to 45. This suggests that aeration plays an important part for microbial populations to withstand sudden DOC loadings and DOC removal is sensitive to sudden changes in recharge water quality. Lastly, comparing similar operating conditions, it can be observed that DOC removal increases with successive cycles. An explanation for the increased removal of DOC with progressive cycles could be attributed to generally lower infiltration rates (in Cycles 3 and Cycle 5) and the biological acclimation of the column.
1 Unsaturated 2 Saturated (ponding) 3 Unsaturated 4 Saturated (ponding) 5 Unsaturated
Flow increased daily Constant head Flow increased daily Biological clogging layer formation towards end of cycle Diminishing infiltration rates due to surface clogging layer
Results
For the duration of the experiment, the groundwater level remained within the column. Infiltration rates, therefore, had to be monitored closely when stepping-up flows during unsaturated cycles so as to prevent air entrapment inside the sand column. During Cycle 2, the infiltration capacity was approximately 5.6m/d for a ponding head of 0.3m. This cycle was abruptly ended and was followed by an 8 day unsaturated cycle (Cycle 3). During Cycle 4, a larger head of 0.42m was maintained as compared to Cycle 2. The average infiltration capacity, however, was smaller, at 5.0m/d. This diminished infiltration capacity was due to the rising groundwater level coupled with the formation of a clogging layer towards the end of Cycle 4, which severely impaired infiltration rates. During Cycle 5, infiltration rates decreased to about 1.3m/d. Figure 2 shows the DOC removed as a percentage of influent DOC concentration. Influent DOC concentrations varied in the range of 6.34mg/L to 9.08mg/L during the experiment and the range of background DOC of the groundwater varied from 4.31mg/L to 5.70mg/L. From Figure 2, DOC removal was clearly more pronounced under unsaturated conditions as compared to measurements taken during saturated conditions. Low infiltration rates below 3m/d during unsaturated flows also produced greatest DOC removal of 29 4%. Average DOC removal for Cycles 1 and 3 were 21 9% and 29 4% respectively whereas Cycles 2 and 4 only achieved 10 6% and 13 5% removal respectively. The corresponding average infiltration rates were about 3.8 and 3.0m/d for Cycles 1 and 3, and 5.7 and 5.0m/d for Cycles 2 and 4 respectively. This implies that a reduction of saturation infiltration rates by about as little as 33% could result in the doubling of DOC removal. Greatest DOC removal (30% of influent DOC) was observed during Cycle 5 where the clogging layer limited infiltration rates to less than 1.5m/d. Based on additional samples obtained from different depths, for Days 9, 10 and 15, no removal of DOC
concentration (mg/L)
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Days
Figure 2 Time series of DOC, % DOC removal and infiltration rate
Conclusions
Increasing infiltration rates during unsaturated cycles from 2.4m/d to about 5m/d showed decreasing removals for DOC. Average removal rates of 29% for DOC and were the highest at infiltration rates of less than 3.0m/d under unsaturated conditions. The lowest DOC removal rates (12%) occurred during saturated conditions with average infiltrations rates of about 5.01m/d to 5.59m/d. Decreasing average saturation flow by as little as 33% can double organic removals. Organic removals were observed to be the greatest in the first 1.0m of the sand (83% to 100% removal).
Measuring Shear Stresses on a Hollow Fibre Membrane with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
Adrian Yeo (ps7731073h@ntu.edu.sg) Adrian Law Wing Keung (cwklaw@ntu.edu.sg) Anthony G. Fane (agfane@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
Hollow fiber membrane modules are similar to tubular membranes, but are self supporting and require no separate support or backing. Hollow fibers can be operated in lumen to shell mode, where the feed is pumped through the hollow fibers, or in shell to lumen mode, where the feed is pumped from the outside of the fibers and the permeate removed from the inside of the fibers. The use of hollow fibers have been found to be one of the more economical in terms of energy consumption, and have the highest surface area to volume ratio of all the membrane modules. Several mechanisms for the enhancement of the performance of membranes due to gas sparging have been identified, including bubble induced secondary flow, physical displacement of the mass transfer boundary layer, reduction in membrane fouling and pressure pulsing caused by slugs. Physical displacement and the reduction in fouling resistance are thought to be the main reasons for the observed enhancement in gas sparged ultrafiltration with hollow fiber membrane systems. It has been found that bubbling can be expected to be efficient for limiting particle deposition and concentration polarization phenomena, but not internal fouling. Recent studies have also recognized that the use of coarse, rather than fine bubbling is much more effective in improving fluxes. Also, loose, rather than tight fibers are recommended to reduce fouling. A larger air flow rate decreases the rate at which the pressure rises due to fouling. However, enhancement reaches a plateau as gas flow rate increases. For submerged systems, the benefits of bubbling appear to be the most effective at low liquid velocities. At high liquid velocities, the performance becomes shear dominated. The studies on aeration of submerged hollow fiber membranes have so far focused on the effect of gas flow rates. However, the effect of bubble size and frequency on the performance of hollow fibers in submerged systems is not well documented. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of bubble size, bubble frequency and cross flow on shear stresses on the surface of a hollow fiber membrane both held singly and in a bundle. The fibers were both tight and loose. The
shear stresses would be related to the performance of the membrane fibre.
Particle Image Velocimetry

Particle Image Velocimetry is a whole field technique is a nonintrusive measurement technique for steady and unsteady flows. It allows the investigation of spatial flow structures. In the plane of the flow field, two dimensional velocity vectors are captured. This technique is uniquely suitable for use in the study of shear stresses on the surface of the membrane. The shear stresses are sensitive to any disturbance in the boundary layer, which is usually less than a millimeter in thickness. Some techniques such as constant temperature anemometry require that a probe be placed where the velocity is to be measured. The presence of the probe will inevitably affect the flow within this sensitive layer.
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Experiments
PIV technique was used to measure the shear stress on the surface of a single fiber under different bubbling conditions. Figure 1 shows the flow field around the fibre just after the passage of a bubble. As can be seen from the figure, there is turbulence induced by the wake of the bubble.
Figure 1 Velocity Vectors when no bubbling is present
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Various bubbling sizes and frequencies were studied. For each bubble size and frequency, 1000 sets of readings were taken. The standard deviations of these readings were plotted together with the rate of increase of trans-membrane pressure. An example is shown in Figure 2 which indicates that the rate of increase of pressure falls as the standard deviation of the shear stress increases.
Conclusions
The transient variations in shear stresses around a hollow membrane fibre and the standard deviations of the shear stress variations were determined under different bubbling regimes. It was found that the standard deviation of the shear stress was important in controlling fouling when the shear rates were low. This project will be extended to other aspects of fluid flow in membrane systems. Various configurations of membrane
Figure 2 Varitaion of rate of increase of TMP with the standard deviation of shear stress
filtration system, such as the flat sheet system, will also be studied. This study is done in collaboration with the Temasek Professor Program for Sustainable Water, supported by A*Star.
Propagation of Tsunami in Malacca Strait A Solitary Wave Approach

Rosales-Sierra Victor (victorrosales@ntu.edu.sg) Lim Teck Bin (ctblim@ntu.edu.sg) Tan Soon Keat (ctansk@ntu.edu.sg)
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The objective of this document is to report the results of numerical simulations of solitary wave propagation in Singapore waters from a tsunami initiated in the Andaman Sea. A scenario of a tsunami generated northern Andaman is simulated. The results are compared with the Sumatra tsunami of 26 December 2004. Based on the findings of the numerical simulations results, the writers concluded that a northern tsunami would have a reduced amount of run-up in Singapore and other locations along the Malacca Straits.
into account the details of the zones where the comparison was made: west coast of Banda Aceh and Singapore.
Initial conditions
An initial wave of 5m height was observed in the Sumatra tsunami 2004. An over prediction of the tsunami height at various locations was intentionally produced by the use of an analytical Cnoidal wave approximation. The reason of this over prediction is to get higher wave run-up at these locations; otherwise the normal simulation heights would have been small and difficult to compare.
Introduction
The Maritime Research Centre recently studied different analytical initial conditions for tsunami numerical simulations, ROSALES-SIERRA, V., 2005. The model has been verified and validated with field measurements of the 26 December 2004 Sumatra tsunami. In this study a new scenario with a northern generated tsunami was analyzed. A model based on 3D Navier Stokes finite elements code was used in this study. The topobathymetry needed to set up the numerical model was taken from the world data of NOAA, N. G. D. C. N., 2005. Local charts were used to supplement this information. A grid of unstructured elements was then designed to take
Numerical simulations of wave propagation

Numerical simulations were carried out with TELEMAC3D system developed by Janin, J. M., Lepeintre, F., and Pechon, P., 1992. It is a three-dimensional computation code that describes the 3D velocity field (u, v, w) and water depth h (or free surface S measured from the bed) at each time step. The code solves the three-dimensional hydrodynamic equations under the following assumptions:
Navier-Stokes 3D equations with free surface changing in time, Negligible density variation in the mass conservation equation, Hydrostatic (general) and non hydrostatic pressure assumed, Boussinesq approximation for momentum.
The system comprises many modules which allow for external code-interfacing, making it possible for the introduction of different initial boundary conditions in the model and simulation. Numerical domain The domain is composed by an irregular grid of 4272 nodes. Refinement with smaller elements is localized in the region around Singapore and neighboring islands to simulate more accurately the run up to the tsunami. The bathymetry over the domain is shown in Figure 1.
but transported to a different location: northern Andaman Sea. For this scenario the wave front was set quasi perpendicular to the Sumatra tsunami, and the wave propagated in the direction SE initially. The epicenter of this scenario followed the geological subduction line of the tectonic plates. The third and fourth scenarios concern a normalized smaller and bigger wave height with tsunami initial propagation towards the direction of SE as well. The ratio of normalization was . The last two scenarios served to analyze the consequence of smaller and bigger north Andaman Sea tsunamis on the areas around Singapore.
Table 1. Numerical simulation scenarios. Scenario 1 2 3 4 Initial height (m) 5.0 5.0 3.5 7.0 Initial direction North-east South-east South-east South-east
Results
Figure 2 shows the wave propagation for scenario 1 (left) and 2 (right). The arrows represent the initial direction of the tsunami. From Figure 2 it can be observed that the tsunami with direction NE (Sumatra earthquake) is more energetic than the one with direction SE (northern Andaman Sea earthquake). Note that the diffracted tsunami entering the Malacca Straits with an initial direction of SE has lost more energy (wave height) than that of the Sumatra earthquake. The probable reason is that the tsunami was generated at the side of the Bengal Gulf. The Andaman Islands dissipate a greater amount of energy from the north Andaman Sea tsunami than the energy from the Sumatra tsunami dissipated by the Nicobar Islands. The shallow depths of the Andaman Sea cause more refraction of the tsunami to the coast, thus reducing the wave energy that is directed into the Malacca Straits. These two elements are more marked for the tsunami in scenarios 2 - 4. Hence, the tsunami originated from the north with a SE wave direction would be expected to experience greater dissipation of its energy before propagating into the Malacca Straits.
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Figure 1. Domain bathymetry with detail around Singapore. The circles represent locations where wave height comparisons were performed.
The bathymetry was obtained from the NOAA, N. G. D. C. N., 2005. Detailed information was added from local charts. Three locations selected for comparison are as shown in Figure 1. Scenarios Four scenarios were computed in the simulations. Table 1 shows the characteristic of the different scenarios. The first is the reproduction of the Sumatra tsunami in 2004 which was also used to validate the numerical model. In this scenario the tsunami originated in the west coast of Sumatra, and reached a local height of 5 m. The initial direction of propagation was towards the NE, Titov, V., Rabinovich, A. B., Mofjeld, H. O., Thomson, R. E., and Gonzalez, F. I., 2005 . The second scenario describes the same tsunami height
Figure 2. Domain model and tsunami propagation NE (left) and SE (right). Initial wave height H=5m.
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Free surface variations at three selected locations were extracted from the numerical simulations. Figure 1 shows the location of the points. The name of the nearest village was adopted for the points for easy reference: Port Dickinson, Malarko - Tanjung Piai and Kampong Saigon (from the farthest to the nearest distance to Singapore). From the comparisons in Figure 3 and Figure 4, it can be observed that the tsunami coming from the northern location (scenario 2) is less energetic that the one generated in December 2004 near Banda Aceh (scenario 1). Figure 3 shows the non-dimensional tsunami height arriving at each location. Note a slight increment in height from Malarko Tanjung Piai to Kampong Saigon. This is the expected transformation attributable to the shallower depth as the tsunamis approaches the coastal waters. Figure 4 shows the trend of increase of the tsunami height arriving near to Singapore (at Kampong Saigon) for different initial wave heights of the tsunami waves in the SE direction (scenario 2). The case simulating the 2004 Dec 26 incident of the more energetic tsunami is also included in Figure 4 for easy comparison. From this Figure, it is observed that even with an increase wave height of 7m, the anticipated increase in sea-level is not likely to be worst off than that due to the Dec-26 incident. This means that a higher risk is not expected from a tsunami which propagates into the Malacca Strait from the north. More scenarios need to be analyzed to better support this observation.
Figure 3. Comparison of scenarios 1 and 2 for tsunami run-up (normalised) at three locations in the Malacca Straits. The initial Tsunami Height H=5m
Conclusions
Based on the results of numerical simulations, a tsunami generated by a tsunamigenic earthquake at northern Andaman Sea in the side of the Bengal Gulf close to the Andaman Islands would have a smaller effect in Singapore waters compared to a tsunami generated in a location similar to that of the 26 December 2004 Sumatra tsunami. The reasons are the dissipation of energy attributable to the Andaman Islands and the shallow depths in the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Straits.
Figure 4. Comparison of 4 scenarios of tsunami run-up at Kampong Saigon.
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[3] NOAA, N. G. D. C. N., cited 2005: Multibeam Bathymetry. [Available online from http:// www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/bathymetry/multibeam.html.] [4] Rosales-Sierra, V., 2005: Initial Conditions on Numerical Simulations of Tsunami Propagation. International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation & Rehabilitation, Singapore, World Scientific Publishing Company. [5] Titov, V., A. B. Rabinovich, H. O. Mofjeld, R. E. Thomson, and F. I. Gonzalez, 2005: The Global Reach of the 26 December 2004 Sumatra Tsunami, 2045-2048 pp. [6] Tyvand, P. A. and K. B. Haugen, 2005: Initial freesurface elevation due to impulsive deflection of a twodimensional bottom with small slope and small curvature. Fluid Dynamics Research, 36, 1-8.
References
[1] EERI, 2005: Distribution of the Tsunami Heights of the 2004 Sumatra Tsunami in Banda Aceh measured by the Tsunami Survey Team. [2] Janin, J. M., F. Lepeintre, and P. Pechon, 1992: TELEMAC 3D : A finite element code to solve 3D free surface flow problems. Computer modelling of seas and coastal regions, Southampton, (UK).
ABSTRACTS OF RESEARCH REPORTS

A Case Study for Structural Collapse Analysis
Principal Investigator: Pan Tso-Chien Report No: CEE/2005/144 This study investigates the effects of an external explosion on a high-rise commercial reinforced concrete (RC) building. The threat scenarios were defined in terms of a TNT equivalent of explosives with short and long standoff distances. The building is of cast-in situ RC structure, which comprises RC frames and shear cores. The study has investigated the structural response to explosioninduced overpressure which looks into the blast resistance of the building, the post-blast fire resistance of the damaged building and the adequacy of building regulations and codes against progressive collapse. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Blast Resistance of the building: At a long standoff distance, both the transverse and longitudinal frames could still survive, post-blast, the vertical service loads when the heavily damaged beams are removed. Post-Blast Fire Resistance of the damaged building: An approximate duration of fire resistance of the structure may range from 10 min to 50 min depending on the heat curve and the fire exposure condition assumed for the structural members. Adequacy of Building Regulations and Codes against Progressive Collapse: RC buildings in Singapore would experience demands on strength and ductility, which are greater than their inherent strength capacities and ductility factors for the blast event at a long standoff distance. More severe consequences can thus be expected for the blast event at a short standoff distance. in the methanogenic reactor, and part of the effluent stream was recycled into acidogenic reactor to reduce the volume of effluent to be discharged from the HASL system and hence required no additional water for hydrolysis of food waste feedstock. The coupled solid/liquid bioreactor was an enhanced two-phase AD system, which was more efficient in the conversion of food waste into methane and carbon dioxide. 100% of the total methane generated was from the methanogenic phase with an average methane content of 71%. In this modified AD system, the use of UASB reactor enhanced methanogenesis and increased the methane content in biogas produced. After the success of the lab-scale (5 L) and a larger-lab-scale (100 L) HASL system development, the research team has been working on the development of a 3-tonne/day pilotscale plant with a research grant from Singapore government and industry.
Horticultural Waste: A New Material for Producing Quality Soil Substitute

Principal Investigator: Wang Jing-Yuan Report No: CEE/2005/146 The objective of the project was to develop a new artificial soil using poor fertility subsoil and local organic materials, such as horticultural compost and sewage sludge, for landscaping and gardening in Singapore. The addition of horticultural compost improved the physical properties of subsoil by the reduction of bulk density, but increase of total porosity, water holding capacity and hydraulic conductivity. The addition of sewage sludge provided nutrients for plant growth. The addition of 2% of sewage sludge to subsoil, amended with 4% of horticultural compost, ensured the best performance of plant growth. The contents of heavy metals in plants grown in this artificial soil were significantly lower than toxic levels. Further experiments showed that initial content of sewage sludge in artificial soil should not exceed 4%, to prevent its toxic influence, but portional addition of sewage sludge during plants cultivation can enhance their development and growth. Increase of application rate of horticultural compost in addition to the mixture of subsoil from 4 to 10% enhanced the plant growth and development. However, dispersibility (i.e., erodibility) of artificial soil with sewage sludge was higher than in the control. It was found use of artificial soil produced from subsoil, 4% of horticultural compost and 2 or 4% of sewage sludge could support plants growth and development without harmful impact of leached heavy metals on environment. On the other hand, addition of sewage sludge increased the content of enterobacteria in 4 10 times, but during the 16 weeks of the field experiment, the content of enterobacteria decreased by 15 40%. The soil substitute produced from this project meets Class B sludge requirement. The findings from this project have been provided to local waste recycling companies to study the possibility of producing biofertilizer with addition of sludge and horticultural compost.
2.
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3.
A systematic review reveals that advanced computational methodologies such as coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Computational Solid Mechanics (CSM) with precise experiments should be sought. This will provide a balanced approach to an integrated, defensive design to protect buildings against multiple hazards. Therefore, more powerful computational programs with coupled CFD-CSM capabilities and precise testing have to be developed in order to better predict the effects of blast load and the resulting structural responses.
Conversion of Food Waste into Biogas and Biofertilizer

Principal Investigator: Tay Joo Hwa Report No: CEE/2005/145 The objective of the project was to develop an integrated food waste bioconversion system to produce biogas and fertiliser. The hybrid anaerobic solid-liquid (HASL) digestion system was developed to enhance food waste bioconversion in comparison with traditional anaerobic digesters. The unique features of the innovation were the enhancement of the conventional two-phase anaerobic treatment of food waste to increase the efficiency of methanogenesis process and the methane content in biogas, and to diminish the volume of liquid effluent from traditional two-phase anaerobic digestion (AD) system for solid organic waste treatment. The experiments were focused on the batch and semi-continuous operation of the modified two-phase HASL system, which included a semi-solid recycle reactor as the acidogenic reactor and an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor as the methanogenic reactor. Under the HASL system design, the effluent from the methanogenic reactor was used for the dilution of the effluent from the acidogenic reactor to maintain optimal pH for methanogenesis
The Effect of External Flow on Interior Air Quality

Principal Investigator: Adrian Law Wing Keung Report No: CEE/2005/147 We investigated the re-entrainment of pollutants around a low-rise industrial building under opposing winds through experimental means in a wind tunnel. Two scaled models of an industrial building for electrowinning metal extraction were tested. The first model was a two-dimensional simplified segment of the building with a scale ratio of 1:40, while the second was a 1:100 three-dimensional model of the full building. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was
RESEARCH REPORTS
adopted to provide the planar velocity measurements that illustrated the flow distribution around the building. Flame Ionisation Detection (FID) with propane tracer gas was used to measure the concentration distribution. The results of the 2D model with 90 degree opposing wind show that the exhaust plume interacted with the opposing wind in two different stages, namely ground attachment and bent-over. The ground attachment stage occurred under low wind speeds, whereby the exhaust plume exhibited Coanda attachment with the ground surface before being lifted off by the cross wind and circulated to the leeward wake cavity. Upon further increase in the wind speed, the bent-over stage occurred whereby the exhaust plume detached from the ground and was deflected upward over the roof, before being entrained by the wake. The re-entrainment ratio decreased with the increase in wind speed within the range of wind speeds tested, indicating that the range did not include the critical wind speed. Results from the 3-D model with 90 degree opposing wind painted a somewhat different picture and pointed to the significance of the end conditions. The maximum re-entrainment always occurred near the two ends of the building, where the pollutants mostly flowed around the ends rather than over the roof. The reentrainment ratio was consistently higher at the two ends compared to the central sections. A building re-entrainment index, BRI, is proposed to characterize the re-entrainment performance of a specific building geometry. With oblique wind angles, the re-entrainment distribution is complex and highly three-dimensional. The overall results pointed to even higher significance of the end conditions. The maximum reentrainment always occurred at the downwind side of the intake, whereby the dominant pathway for the transport was for the pollutant to go around the downwind building end rather than over the roof. The deviations in re-entrainment ratio between the downwind end and central sections increased further with larger wind angles. The quantitative dependence of re-entrainment with the wind angle was drastic. The average building re-entrainment index reduces almost linearly from 110 in cross-wind to less than 10 at 45 degree and beyond.
column, and this attenuation depended on both the principal frequency of input ground motion and the axial vibration frequency of the column. The lateral response characteristics were strongly related to both the frequency of the input wave and the natural frequency of the column. It was concluded that columns with small imperfections may buckle if the vertical ground motion is strong enough. However, when the imperfection was large, the column will fail in the normal flexural dynamic response instead. Three critical conditions for response were defined, viz., the dynamic buckling critical condition, dynamic yielding critical condition and the dynamic failure critical condition. The corresponding critical peak ground accelerations were also estimated for each column.
Wind Tunnel Study on the Aerodynamic Derivatives of the Ting Kau Bridge
Principal Investigator: Edmund Choi Report No: CEE/2005/149 The Ting Kau bridge with its 1,177m length when completed, is one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world. It provides the linkage between the new Chak Lap Kok Airport and other parts of Hong Kong. The bridge is situated within the typhoon belt. Thus it is important to establish the relationship between wind actions and bridge response.
For cable-supported bridges, because of the high degree of flexibility, bridge movements are of primary concern in the design of the bridge. The vibration characteristics of a bridge are strongly dependent on the aerodynamic characteristics of its bridge deck. The motion-induced wind load on a structure with a constant mode shape can be represented by the aerodynamic derivatives, (ADs), Hi* and Ai* (i=1, 2, 3 and 4) These derivatives are functions of the physical characteristics (shape and geometry) of the bridge deck and wind speed. With these ADs known, the behaviour of the bridge under wind action can be predicted. Wind tunnel section model testing technique is used to obtain the aerodynamic derivatives. The shape and geometry of the Ting Kau bridge deck is modeled. The vertical and torsional vibration characteristics of the bridge are simulated by adjusting the mass of the model and the stiffness of the supporting springs. Estimates of eight aerodynamic derivatives (ADs) or Scanlan coefficients have been found for a range of model wind speeds corresponding to full-scale wind speeds up to a level higher than the 60m/sec design wind speed. Clear trends were identified for cross derivatives H3*, A1*, and direct derivatives H1*, A2*, A3*. The methods for recovering the ADs using transient decay appeared to be reliable for a range of wind speeds.
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Theoretical and Experimental Study of the Damage Criteria for RC Structures subjected to Blast Induced Ground Excitations
Principal Investigator: Cheong Hee Kiat Report No: CEE/2005/148 This study investigated the dynamic responses, buckling and postbuckling of steel columns and the dynamic failure of RC columns subjected to strong vertical ground motions induced by underground explosion. In the experimental tests, 51 steel columns and 38 _scale RC columns were tested in a shake-table facility. The influence of slenderness ratio, initial column imperfection, and the presence of an added mass on the top of each column to simulate the weight of superstructure over the column were studied. To investigate the effect of different ground motion frequencies, five different acceleration waves were used as input waves. Also investigated was the effect of ground motion duration on the behaviour of the columns. The results of a numerical treatment of the effects on these columns were also reported. Several parametric effects, such as slenderness ratio, added mass on the top of column, mass eccentricity, ground motion frequency and duration, and the initial imperfection of column were taken into account. It was found that the column axial acceleration response attenuated as the stress wave propagated from the bottom to the top of the
Wind Characteristics of Thunderstorms and their Effects on Wind Loading Design in Singapore
Principal Investigator: Edmund Choi Report No: CEE/2005/150 Singapore is situated in the equatorial belt where there are no severe tropical cyclones (typhoons). The monsoon winds over these regions are also mild. Thus, strong winds due to these weather systems are relatively less severe. On the other hand, equatorial regions have frequent tropical thunderstorms. Wind speeds of the gust fronts of these thunderstorms can be relatively high. Thunderstorm winds play an important role in defining the wind loading criteria in the equatorial region. Unfortunately, the existing knowledge on thunderstorm is very much inadequate.
The objective of the project is to obtain the wind characteristics of thunderstorm wind through on-site measurements of thunderstorm wind. The project involves the installation of anemometers at five heights on a 150m tall tower. The anemometers are to be fast response, 3-directional anemometers capable of measuring the u, v and w velocity components. A rain gauge is also used to monitor the rain condition during the thunderstorm. Data are recorded by high speed data-logging system and transmitted through telephone line to NTU for processing and analysis. Velocity profile, gust factor and energy spectrum of thunderstorm wind are obtained from the analysis of the wind data. It is observed that these wind characteristics are very different from those of the large scale wind. The normal design procedure for the dynamic design of structures due to wind action is found to be not satisfactory. A new dynamic gust factor method using running mean approach is proposed and produced satisfactory result. Findings of the study are referred to in the new draft of the ISO Wind Loading code (ISO CD4354).
Analysis of Dynamic Response and Characterisation of In-Structure Shock of Explosive Loaded Structures
Principal Investigator: Lu Yong Report No: CEE/2005/152 This project was aimed to characterize the in structure shock induced by subsurface explosions in soil. For this purpose, a numerical three-phase model for soil under shock loading was developed. A full coupled numerical model was established to simulate the entire process involving charge detonation in soil, stress wave propagation, interaction between soil and the concrete structure, and structural response. The coupled model encompasses the SPH technique for the close-in soil region where large deformation takes place, and the Lagrangian FE technique for the remaining soil medium and the concrete structure. Scaled physical models were tested as part of the ETSC test programme in 2004, and pertinent experimental data were processed and analyzed. The numerical model was verified against the ETSC and other benchmark data. Subsequently, parametric calculations were performed to examine the influences of various parameters, and a simplified approach has been proposed for the prediction of the in-structure shock.
Characterization of Ground Motion in Tropical Soils due to Transient Dynamic Loading

Principal Investigator: Leong Eng Choon Report No: CEE/2005/151 The objectives of the research are: (1) To study the free field wave propagation and attenuation characteristics from explosive sources and to quantify the characteristics of the ground motion particularly in tropical soils; (2) To study the effect of degree of saturation in soils on wave propagation characteristics; (3) To determine dynamic soil properties of tropical soils in Singapore; (4) To study the effect of blast wave loading on structures through numerical modeling, and (5) To develop a triaxial dynamic measurement system for field monitoring of wave propagation and attenuation through soils. To serve these three objectives, field explosion tests, numerical simulation of underground explosions, and data analyses were carried out. The field explosion tests also included site characterization works to determine the dynamic properties of the in-situ soil. The field tests were undertaken in various soil types including sands, clays, and residual soils. The field explosion tests also included a variety of buried targets to investigate the amplification effects on stress waves caused by these buried targets. The results from the site characterization works and the field explosion tests were used to calibrate a numerical model. The 2-D and 3-D numerical modelling works were undertaken using LSDYNA, a commercial finite element program. The field test results, numerical results and published literature were used to develop relationships for predicting of free-field and reflected response of Singapore soils. The TM5-855-1 (1986) equations for free-field stresses and motions were re-written using dimensionless parameters and Poissons ratio. It was also found from the analyses that the free-field stresses and motions were affected by material damping. Charts were thus developed, as a function Poissons ratio and material damping. The proposed equations based on the Poissons ratio and damping ratio provided a more objective estimate of the free-field stresses and motions.
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Shear Strength of RC Columns Under Multi-Directional Loading

Principal Investigator: Paulus Irawan Report No: CEE/2005/153 Some reinforced concrete (RC) columns in high-rise buildings, bridges and elevated highways suffered severe damage during strong earthquakes due to brittle and catastrophic shear failure. Under seismic loads, depending on the direction of the ground motion and the connection between the columns and other members, these columns can experience any combination of shear force, axial force, bending moment and torsion. The disastrous collapse of RC columns during the earthquakes motivates a study on the behaviour of RC short columns subjected to multi-directional forces, typical of seismic or wind load. Previous researches prove that low shear span ratio elements are characterized by high strength and stiffness in monotonic or low cycle loading and fail at relatively low deformations, in brittle manner. However, behaviour of relatively high strength concrete rectangular short column under high axial load, especially when torsion is present, is still needs to be further investigated. Many studies have been conducted on prediction of shear strength and finite element modelling of reinforced concrete columns. Nevertheless, the present shear design methods do not consistently provide safe and efficient structures. The present finite element models also do not predict accurately cyclic response of short column particularly under multi-axial loading. Therefore, additional experimental and analytical works need to be conducted. This study consists of three parts. The first part investigates RC short columns subjected to multi-directional loading. Nine identical rectangular columns were tested in shear, torsion or combination of them under high axial load. Cyclic shear force was applied in double curvature mode at different angles to the weak axis of column cross section. The second part of this research simulates behaviour of RC short columns under complex loading conditions by finite element method. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional cracked concrete model developed in University of Tokyo was modified. Though finite element analysis could provide accurate prediction of shear capacity of short columns, a more simple method is desired.
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In the third part of this study, the shear design method A proposed by Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) was modified based on rational evaluation of effective compressive strength of concrete, truss angle and stress of transverse reinforcement. The modified AIJs shear design method is proposed based on the newly derived expressions of effective compressive strength, angle of truss mechanism and stress in transverse reinforcement. Several restrictions in the original method become redundant and can be eliminated. The modified AIJs method provides better prediction of shear capacity of the 58 columns. The method is more rational, reliable and simpler. The method is not only applicable for short columns but also likely applicable for more slender columns.
Application of Smart Materials in Health Monitoring of Civil Infrastructures

Principal Investigator: Soh Chee Kiong Report No: CEE/2005/155 The recent advent of smart materials technologies has ushered in a new avenue for the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. Smart piezoelectric-ceramic (PZT) materials, for example, have emerged as high frequency mechatronic impedance transducers (MITs) for SHM. As MIT, the PZT patches are not only robust, cost-effective, and show high damage sensitivity, but are also ideal for already constructed infrastructures and currently operational machinery because they only require non-intrusive external installation. The piezo-impedance transducers, acting as collocated actuators and sensors, employ ultrasonic vibrations (typically in 30400 kHz range) to read the characteristic signature of the structure, which contains vital information governing the phenomenological nature of the structure, and can be analysed to predict the onset of structural damages. High operational frequency ensures sensitivity high enough to capture any damage at the incipient stage itself, much before it acquires detectable macroscopic dimensions. This new SHM technique is popularly called the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique. In spite of enormous potential due to its low-cost and high sensitivity, the EMI technique is still in the infancy stage as far as damage severity assessment or access to the inherent damage mechanism is concerned. Changes in the diagnostic signature and the nature, severity and type of damage are not well correlated. Till date, all the existing approaches are non-parametric and statistical in nature, and are able to utilize only the real part of signature. The information concerning damage carried by the imaginary part is therefore lost. Besides, no attempt has been made to extract the mechanical impedance of the interrogated structure from the electro-mechanical signatures, partly due to the non-existence of suitable impedance models. This research focused on utilizing the underlying PZT-structure electro-mechanical interaction for impedance based structural identification and SHM using the EMI technique. A new concept of active signatures has been proposed to extract the more damagesensitive information from the raw signatures and a new PZT-structure interaction model has been developed based on the concept of effective impedance. The proposed formulations can be conveniently employed to extract the hidden damage sensitive structural parameters for any unknown structure by means of surface-bonded PZT patches. A new experimental technique has been developed to update the model of the PZT patch, so as to enable it to extract the host structures impedance information much more accurately. A unified impedance approach has been developed to identify the host structure from the extracted mechanical impedance spectra and to carry out quantitative and parametric damage prediction. This has made possible greater information about the nature of damage in terms of stiffness, damping and mass changes, which was so far lacking. As proof-of-concept, the new diagnostic approach has been applied on representative aerospace and civil structural components. Further, in order to rigorously calibrate the piezo-impedance transducers for damage assessment, comprehensive tests were carried out on concrete specimens. An empirical fuzzy probabilistic damage model has been proposed for predicting damage level in concrete using piezo-impedance transducers. In addition, a new experimental technique has been developed to predict in situ concrete strength non-destructively using the EMI technique, thereby imparting it further edge over the contemporary non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. Finally, the intermediate bond layer between the PZT patch and the structure has been integrated into the impedance models, thereby enabling a rigorous analysis of the shear lag effect associated with the bond layer.
Ultrasound Treatment of Sludge for Anaerobic Digestion

Principal Investigator: Show Kuan Yeow Report No: CEE/2005/154 The objective of the project is to examine feasibility of low frequency ultrasound pretreatment of sludge for enhancement of anaerobic digestion, and to establish optimum sonication conditions for a cost-effective pretreatment. The test results indicated that the sonication resulted in a reduction in the sludge particle size from 43-65m to 7.7-15m, and an increase in the soluble COD to COD ratio of up to 440%, indicating effective disruption of sludge solids and transformation of organic substances into soluble form. Significant digester improvements in terms of COD removal, solids removal and biogas production were observed in all digesters fed with sonicated sludge. Comparing to the control digester fed with untreated sludge, the COD removal improved by 1-17%, 1-31% and 1-32% in the digesters fed with sludge sonicated at densities of 0.18W/mL, 0.33W/mL, and 0.52W/mL, respectively. The total solids (TS) removal improved by 1-21%3-42% and 5-45% in the respective digesters. The improved COD and TS removal efficiency corresponded with significant increase in biogas production by 45175%, 140-220% and 86-220% in the respective digesters, as well as an increase in methane composition by 2-19%. The experimental results demonstrated that ultrasonication is an efficient solids destruction technique which results in significant reduction in sludge particle size and increase in soluble organics. Anaerobic digesters fed with sonicated sludge indicated enhanced biochemical degradation of solids commensurate with increased methane production. Ultrasound waves applied to sludge could generate cavitation bubbles, which grow and then violently collapse when they reach a critical size. The collapse of cavitation bubbles produces powerful hydromechanical shearing forces along with localized high temperature and high pressure. These extreme conditions would lead to destruction of sludge flocs and conversion of partial complex organics into soluble forms, as well as bacterial cell wall rupture releasing ezo-enzymes to biocatalyse hydrolytic reactions. Moreover, breakage of strong chemical bonds of recalcitrant compounds is facilitated. Consequently, the sludge is modified into amendable forms to favor subsequent anaerobic digestion. The enhancement could bring about several benefits in wastewater treatment plant operation. These include capital cost saving out of smaller unit digester, cost savings in downstream sludge treatment and disposal, and increase in energy yield derived from improved biogas production.
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In addition, the concepts of vibration-based methods have been integrated with the EMI technique to extend its applicability for damage location identification and damage growth characterization. Natural frequency changes are extracted from the admittance signatures, and the variations in the frequency changes are studied for damage location identification and characterization. Based on the changes in natural frequencies, parametric methods for damage location identification and damage growth characterization have been developed. The damage location identification method uses the natural frequency changes extracted from the e/m admittance signatures and the mode shapes obtained from the FE model for undamaged structure. For damage growth characterization, statistical measures for quantifying the pattern of frequency shifts have been proposed instead of quantifying the admittance signature changes. The numerical and experimental verification for the two methods are presented. Another major contribution of this research is the novel integration of Bayesian network model to e/m impedancebased structural health monitoring. With limited data availability and in the presence of model errors this reasoning tool can be used to enhance the structural damage identification. The errors obtained in damage location identification due to limitations of the FE model are eradicated using the integrated Bayesian networks.
This research project seeks to bridge the gap between the disciplines of structural engineering and fire protection engineering and produces practical design guide for structural engineers. It is interdisciplinary as it combines heat transfer model with FEM structural model. The objectives are (1) to develop a performance-based design by using more realistic fire curve, (2) to ensure consistent level of fire safety in steel buildings, (3) to promote steel construction by making it more economical, and (4) to encourage more innovative design. Two levels of design will be offered: viz. a more advanced level using computational mechanics programs developed in-house in NTU such as FEMFAN, and a basic level hinged on Eurocode code member design. A design guide is also prepared for users.
Design of Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall with OpeningStrut-and-Tie Approach

Principal Investigator: Li Bing Report No: CEE/2005/157 To date limited research on the seismic behaviourof walls with irregular openings has been conducted, and a general design recommendation based on the strut-and-tie models and the capacity design procedures has been provided by the ACI 318 and NZS 3101 codes. However, the behaviour of the structural walls with irregular openings subjected to seismic loadings and the details of the design procedures have not been adequately addressed. Therefore, experimental and analytical studies on the seismic design of walls with irregular openings were performed in this study. Six flanged walls, consisting of one solid wall, three walls with irregular openings, and two walls with regular openings were tested under reversed cyclic loadings. It was found that the flanged walls with irregular openings could perform similar to the solid flanged wall. All of the walls reached the flexural yield strength before failures. The modified strut-and-tie models developed based on the load paths of the walls with irregular openings could predict the behaviour of the walls satisfactorily; however, because of the presence of flanges, the walls often failed in sliding failure modes. A series of parametric studies on the walls with openings were performed using a reliable non-linear finite element programme. The selected parameters included the flanges, the axial loadings, the different loading schemes, the reinforcements in the different zones of the walls with irregular openings, and the size and arrangement of the openings etc. Both the quasi-static analysis and the dynamic analysis were carried out. In addition, a seismic performance evaluation on walls with openings was performed using the capacity spectrum method. The seismic demands of these walls were investigated. Based on the experimental and analytical results, a general design approach was proposed for the design of walls with irregular openings. In this design method, flexural behaviour of the walls was studied for the selections of strut-and-tie models and the determinations of overstrengths for the shear design, so that the undesirable failure modes could be avoided.
Performance Based Design Guide for Fire Resistance of Bare Steel Structures
Principal Investigator: Tan Kang Hai Report No: CEE/2005/156
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Current practice for fire resistance of steel structures is very much based on prescriptive-based design, which is derived from furnace tests conforming to ISO 834 fire curve. This is contrary to the international trend of building design development, which is towards performance-based design. Prescriptive-based design is often overconservative as it assumes that steel frame members are isolated pieces subjected to unrealistic ISO 834 curve that does not have a natural decay period, and once the limiting temperature is reached, frame members will collapse. It does not recognise the fact that structural members are interconnected and redistribution of actions can take place. Consequently, fire protection of bare steel frames becomes the accepted norm in Singapore. This is an expensive operation and is not always aesthetically pleasing especially for novelty structures that emphasise architectural features such as transparency and sleekness. The main purpose of this research is to promote steel construction industry in Singapore. This is done through (1) quantification of realistic compartment fire load and the fire curve, (2) heat transfer model for determining heat flux into steel members, (3) experimental behaviour of restrained connections and restrained columns, (4) finite element (FE) model for fire resistance of steel members, and (5) mechanical model which can be done manually or through computer.
RESEARCH REPORTS
Studies on Inhibition and Feeding Strategies for Denitrification in Dupont Textiles and Interiors (Singapore) Pte Ltd (DTI)s Anoxic Bioreactors
Principal Investigator: Show Kuan Yeow Report No: CEE/2005/158 Denitrifying bacteria are aerobic microorganisms that are able to utilize oxidized nitrogen compounds in place of oxygen. A number of parameters may affect the denitrification process, such as pH, temperature, carbon sources (electron donors), nitrate and nitrite, dissolved oxygen (DO), and the presence of toxic compounds and so forth. Among these parameters, organic substrate or the electron donor is one of the most important parameters that may influence the process. This is especially true when these organic substances are from industrial waste streams. It has been noted that various waste streams from different sources have different extent inhibitory effects on the denitrifying capability of the microbial community. This may result in malfunction of denitrifying bacteria in the anoxic bioreactors and in turn the process upset. It is therefore necessary to study the inhibitory effects of these waste streams. The objective of this work is to study the inhibitory effects of six waste streams from DTI on the denitrification capability of the denitrifying bacterial consortium in DTIs anoxic bioreactors. In this report, the mixed biomass from DTIs anoxic bioreactors was used as the inoculums in flasks to simulate the denitrification process. Each waste stream was adjusted to have the same pH, TOC and concentration of nitrate prior to the experiments. In addition, pH change before and after denitrification was also monitored. The rate of nitrate removal was measured by monitoring the concentrations of NO3- and NO2- periodically. At the end of the experiments, the microbial community structure was characterized by the diversity of the 16S rDNA sequences of the microbial consortium using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) DGGE (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) techniques. The experimental results show that the inhibitory effect of all the waste streams tested is in the order of RCD > WWAQ > CTRL > PET > CSM > SWD > ERT. While RCD and WWAQ have the greatest inhibitory effects, ERT and SWD may enhance the denitrification process. The microbial community diversity in DGGE patterns agrees with the kinetics results.
Integrated Structural Health Monitoring of Highway Bridges in Singapore using Distributed Fibre Optic Sensors
Principal Investigator: Pan Tso-Chien Report No: CEE/2005/159 This joint research project between CEE and Building and Construction Authority (BCA) was initiated to study the use of distributed fibre optic sensors to monitor structural health of highway bridges in Singapore. In this study, 3 bridge sections have been selected for investigation. The research team has collected data via wireless modem, emailed to users daily from a server until May 2004, when the logging of data was suspended due to the suspension of construction activities at the work site. The data were also collected via surface mounted sensors after two attempts to install FBG sensors inside the concrete segments failed. In the FBG method, the gauges failed to give out signal after concreting, which could have resulted from mishandling of the sensors and their protections during concreting. The team has however continued to develop algorithms for data mining and anomaly detection. The algorithms developed have been applied to data obtained from an existing instrumented structure. Research in this area has been well received internationally. The development of methodologies for finite element model updating has also progressed well. Significant spin-off from the research has been the increased use of wireless data transmission for remote structural monitoring purposes. Construction progress on the bridge site of PPSE has slowed down almost to a standstill during 2004. The team has thus been waiting to capture the events of segment closure for the training of a structural health monitoring system. Due to the time frame of the research project, the major event of structural loading resulting from segment closure has not been captured when the final report is produced.
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ABSTRACTS OF PhD THESES

Shear Strength Characteristics Under Infiltration Conditions
Candidate: Inge Meilani Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/90 Singapore is located in the South East Asian region and has a tropical climate. About two-thirds of Singapores land area is covered with residual soils. Many residual soil slopes have a deep ground water table. The soils above the ground water table are unsaturated with negative pore-water pressures (i.e., matric suction). Matric suction contributes significantly to the shear strength of soil and to the safety of slopes. However, water infiltration during rainfall increases the pore-water pressure in soil, resulting in a decrease in the matric suction and the shear strength of the soil. Therefore, changes in the negative pore-water pressure associated with heavy rainfalls can result in slope failures. The purpose of this research was to study the shear strength characteristics of saturated and unsaturated soils under shearing-infiltration conditions. The characteristics of pore-water pressure development and volume change in soil under infiltration were investigated. Statically compacted kaolin specimens were used in this study to ensure the homogeneity of soil specimens. In order to study the pore-water pressures in soil during infiltration, a mini suction probe was fabricated. Three mini suction probes were placed at 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 heights of specimen, each at 120 degrees apart in the circumferential direction. This study contributed to the development of pore-water pressure measuring devices for unsaturated soil testing. The mini suction probe can provide a fast response and can be used under a high matric suction for a long period of testing time. The shearinginfiltration tests results show that the failure envelope obtained from the shearing-infiltration tests is unique regardless of the infiltration rate. The failure envelope from the shearing-infiltration tests is the same as the failure envelope from the consolidated drained tests at mean net normal stress, p values from 0 to 150 kPa. However, the characteristics of the failure envelope from the shearing-infiltration tests at p values from 150 kPa to 450 kPa depend on the matric suction. The failure envelope from the shearing-infiltration tests is higher than the failure envelope from the consolidated drained tests at matric suctions from 0 to 80 kPa. On the other hand, the failure envelope from the shearing-infiltration tests is lower than the failure envelope from the consolidated drained tests at matric suctions higher than 80 kPa. The effect of matric suction and p values on the failure envelopes obtained from the consolidated drained tests and the shearing-infiltration tests was explained using the characteristics of the volumetric water content at failure, wf. The total volumetric strain, water volumetric strain and pore-water pressures during the shearing-infiltration tests can be computed using the volume change theory for unsaturated soils. The changes in the total volumetric strain can be related to matric suction using the elastic moduli for the soil structure (i.e., H), while the water volumetric strain and matric suction changes are related using the water volumetric moduli (i.e., Hw). The computed water volumetric strain and the computed pore-water pressure give a good agreement with the experimental water volumetric strain and the experimental pore-water pressure from the shearinginfiltration tests, respectively. The good agreement can be attributed to the use of Hw parameter from the appropriate scanning curve of SWCC. The appropriate scanning curve should start from the matric suction value at the beginning of the infiltration stage.
Instability Behaviour of a Granular Fill Material

Candidate: Leong Wing Kai Report No: CEE/2005/PhD/91 This thesis presents an experimental study on the instability behaviour of a granular fill material retrieved from a reclamation site in Singapore. A preliminary study on the instability behaviour of the granular fill material under drained and undrained conditions was first conducted. The conditions for the occurrence of instability were then established. The failure mechanisms of dense granular submarine slopes and the conditions that govern the instability of dilating granular soil were investigated. The instability behaviour of the granular fill along a drained stress path with decreasing confining stress and constant deviator load was also studied. The instability behaviour of granular soils and its implications for slope stability was discussed. A framework that explains the instability occurring in both loose and dense granular slopes was proposed. The relationship between instability and strain softening of granular soils was discussed. Finally, the influence of fines content (FC) on creep and instability behaviour of loose granular fill material was investigated.
Shear Strength of Reinforced Concrete Slabs under Symmetric Punching

Candidate: Lee Sai Cheng Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/92 This thesis presents the results of experimental and analytical study on the punching resistance near the interior column regions of reinforced concrete slabs. The purpose was to investigate the suitability of current design guidelines for special situations of slabs supported on rectangular columns and provided with several types of shear reinforcements, as well as the effect of high strength concrete on punching. A theoretical model based on the modified compression field theory (MCFT) was developed to predict the punching shear capacity, the inclination of cracked surface and stresses along the cracked surface. A simplified solution was further developed as a practical design procedure for evaluating the punching shear strength of slabs. The validity and accuracy of the two approaches had been verified by comparing the predicted shear resistance with the experimental results obtained from different sources and the codes predictions. Both methods gave safe and consistent predictions over a wide range of slab properties.
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Evolutionary Programming for Civil Engineering Problem Solving

Candidate: Xu Jianfeng Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/93 This thesis develops a general backcalculation algorithm based on evolutionary programming (EP) for structural parameter identification and damage detection. The search efficiency of traditional EP is improved by hybridizing with local search strategies. The elastic parameters of composite plates are determined from the measured natural frequencies. The obtained results agree well with those reported in the literatures. The backcalculation algorithm is then integrated with the impedance-based method to develop a new damage detection technique. A generic impedance model of PZT-structure interacting system is presented to predict the electrical admittance. The effect of modeling errors is successfully minimized by a proposed fitness function. Experiments are conducted on beams and plates to validate the impedance model and the damage detection results. The results demonstrate that the
PHD THESES
proposed technique is able to simultaneously identify the location and quantity of the damage, which overcomes the limitations of the traditional impedance-based method.
Theoretical and Numerical Studies of Wave Attenuation Across Parallel Fractures

Candidate: Zhao Xiaobao Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/94 This thesis presents studies on wave attenuation across parallel fractures using displacement discontinuity theories. The parallel fractures represent rock joint sets in a rock mass and are assumed to be planar, dry, large in extent and small in thickness relative to incident wavelength. A theoretical approach is developed to derive theoretical solutions of one-dimensional wave attenuation across parallel fractures by considering multiple reflections between fractures. In ultrasonic or seismic tests, the magnitude of stress wave is too small to mobilize nonlinear deformation of the fractures. Therefore, linearly deformational behaviour is adopted to study the effects of parallel fractures on P-wave attenuation. However, at the vicinity of an explosion or impact, the magnitude of stress wave is large enough to excite nonlinear deformation of the fractures. In such case, a static nonlinear model is applied to investigate the effects of parallel fractures with nonlinear normal deformational behaviour on P-wave attenuation. When shear stress at fracture interface reaches fracture shear strength, fracture slip occurs. Then the Coulomb slip model is used to study the effects of a single fracture and parallel fractures on S-wave attenuation. In the theoretical formulation, the Coulomb slip model is applied to simulate the shear deformational behaviour. The dependence of magnitude of transmission coefficient on fracture spacing is governed by nondimensional fracture spacing () - ratio of fracture spacing to incident wavelength. Two important indices of nondimensional fracture spacing, threshold value (thr) and critical value (cri), are identified. They divide the area of nondimensional fracture spacing into three parts: individual fracture area ( thr), transition area (thr > > cri) and small spacing area ( cri). In different areas, the magnitude of transmission coefficient has different tendencies with nondimensional fracture spacing and number of fractures. Combined with displacement discontinuous model, methods of plane wave analysis and propagator matrix are applied to develop theoretical solution of in-plane wave attenuation across parallel fractures with linearly deformational behaviour. The effects of parameters, such as incidence angle, normalized stiffness, nondimensional fracture spacing and number of fractures, are examined. Further to the theoretical studies, numerical modelling on one-dimensional wave attenuation across parallel fractures is performed with Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC). Compared with theoretical solutions, UDEC is verified to be capable of modelling one-dimensional wave attenuation across parallel fractures with linearly and nonlinearly deformational behaviours and the Coulomb slip behaviour.
infiltration of rainwater into the slope and keep the slopes in a safe condition. However, the effectiveness of capillary barriers under the influence of high precipitation rates has never been fully investigated and hence is the focus of this research. In this research, the mechanism of sloping capillary barriers under high rainfall conditions was assessed through both laboratory experiments and numerical analyses. An infiltration box apparatus [2.45 m (L) x 2.0 m (H) x 0.4 m (W)] was designed and constructed in laboratory This facility was equipped with comprehensive instrumentation and data acquisition systems, such as pressure transducer-tensiometer system; time domain reflectometry (TDR); magnetic flowmeter and electronic weight balances. Rainfalls of different intensities and durations can be simulated through a rainfall simulator located at the top of the infiltration box. Physical models of sloping capillary barriers, consisting of fine sand over gravelly sand and silty sand over gravelly sand, were constructed inside the infiltration box. The behaviour of these sloping capillary barrier models under high rainfall conditions was studied closely; Each series of experiment was then analysed numerically using the drying and wetting hydraulic properties of the soils that were measured separately; The numerical model was verified by comparing the results of the numerical analysis with those of the experimental data. Having verified the numerical model, an extensive parametric study was then conducted by considering various parameters and conditions that could not be incorporated in the experiments using the laboratory physical model. Capillary barriers were found to be effective in minimising infiltration from rainwater into unsaturated soil slopes under high precipitation rates when appropriately selected materials were used. It was found that the water storage capacity arid the lateral diversion of capillary barriers play an important role in ensuring the effectiveness of the capillary barriers under this condition. Excessive breakthrough begins to occur once the potential storage of the capillary barrier is approached. The magnitude of the breakthrough decreases when: (i) the thickness of the fine-grained layer of the capillary barrier increases; (ii) the contrast in the hydraulic properties of the fine-grained and coarse-grained layer increases; (iii) the water-entry value of the coarse- grained layer decreases; (iv) the inclination angle of the capillary barrier increases; (v) the intensity of the rainfall decreases; (vi) the duration of the rainfall decreases; (vii) the total rainfall decreases; and (viii) the initial condition is relatively dry. Apart from the effectiveness the capillary barrier as mentioned above, it was also found that the hysteretic behaviour of the soils needs to be accounted for in the modelling of the unsaturated flow systems in order to provide realistic results. Furthermore, the appropriate soil-water characteristic curve and permeability function (i.e., drying or wetting) should be used in accordance with the process that the soil actually experiences (i.e., the desorption process or the adsorption process), regardless the flux-boundary condition (i.e., infiltration or evaporation), in order to capture the soil response correctly;
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Predictive Instantaneous Optimal Control of Elastic and Inelastic Structures based on Ground Velocity
Candidate: Pang Miao Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/96 A new predictive instantaneous optimal control (PIOC) algorithm that is based on ground velocity is developed in this research. The new PIOC algorithm is proposed by introducing a new state space form. Since the earthquake ground velocity is not in high frequency as compared with the ground acceleration, it can be predicted at certain time steps beforehand in real-time domain with higher accuracy. This ensures the synchronous execution of the currently proposed PIOC algorithm with the real-time application of the control force. Furthermore, the negative effects of time delay can be reduced to an acceptable level and the possibility that the controlled structure becoming unstable is reduced. Both elastic and
Mechanism of Sloping Capillary Barriers under High Rainfall Conditions

Candidate: Denny Tami Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/95 Rainfall-induced slope failure is one of natural disasters that occur frequently in natural or engineered residual soil slopes. Previous research works indicate that rainfall has been found to significantly affect the pore-water pressures and the shear strengths of residual soils. One of the possible preventive methods for rainfall-induced slope failures is the utilisation of capillary barrier; a fine-grained soil layer placed over a coarse-grained soil layer. The construction of a capillary barrier as a slope cover can significantly reduce the
inelastic structural models using active control are studied by numerical simulation using both single degree of freedom (SDOF) and multi- degrees of freedom (MDOF) structural models to demonstrate the control efficiency using the PIOC algorithm. More practically, the PIOC algorithm is applied to two practical applications: (1) Generation of energy density spectra; and (2) Control of three-dimensional structural model. Results obtained by these numerical studies show that the PIOC algorithm is effective to reduce both the maximum structural response and various energy forms, and it seems promising to deal with the problem of control performance degradation due to time delay.
A Mechanical Impedance Approach for Structural Identification, Health Monitoring and Non-Destructive Evaluation Using Piezo-Impedance Transducers
Candidate: Suresh Bhalla Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/99 The continuous ageing of civil-structures constructed during the last few decades is creating maintenance problems for which engineers are not logistically prepared. Similar problem is increasingly felt for civil and military aircraft, which call for tedious human inspection routinely to detect damages, which, if unnoticed, could lead to great disasters. This concern has prompted research for the development of automated structural health monitoring (SHM) and non-destructive evaluation (NDE) systems. During the last few years, electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique has emerged as a new method for SHM/ NDE. In this technique, piezoimpedance transducers, acting as collocated actuators and sensors, employ ultrasonic vibrations (typically in 30-400 kHz range) to read characteristic signature of the structure in question. This research proposed an impedance-based structural identification and SHM/ NDE using the EMI technique. A new PZT-structure interaction model has been developed based on the concept of effective impedance and a new experimental technique devised to update the model of the PZT patches. The piezo-impedance transducers have been rigorously calibrated for predicting damage level in concrete. In addition, a new experimental technique has been developed to predict in situ concrete strength non-destructively. Finally, the intermediate bond layer between the PZT patch and the structure has been integrated into impedance models, thereby enabling a rigorous analysis of the shear lag effect associated with the bond layer.
Development of Aerobic Granules for Enhanced Biological Wastewater Treatment

Candidate: Jiang Helong Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/97 This study demonstrates that aerobic granules can tolerate and degrade high loads of toxic substrates. Aerobic granules were cultivated in column-type sequential batch reactors at a rate of 1.5 kg phenol m-3 d-1. The compact granular structure offers several advantages, such as high biomass retention and protection of cells against phenol toxicity. Aerobic granules can also make metabolic adaptations and remain stable at higher loadings, up to 2.5 kg phenol m-3 d-1. The Beta subclass of Proteobacteria and high G+C Gram-positive bacteria had a significant presence in the granules. Of ten phenol-degrading bacterial strains isolated from the granules, three possessed 16S sequences belonging to dominant populations within the granules. Strain PG-O 1 had a high relative abundance and may have contributed significantly to phenol degradation in the granules. PG-O 1 was found to possess key physiological traits that allowed it to outcompete and dominate other microorganisms within the granules.
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Dynamic Instability Analysis of Elastic-Plastic

Candidate: Liu Yumin Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/100
Development of Aerobic Granules for Simultaneous Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Removal
Candidate: Yang Shufang Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/98 This research work attempted to develop aerobic granules for simultaneous organic carbon and nitrogen removal. For this purpose, four sequencing batch reactors (SBR) were operated at different substrate N/COD ratios in the range of 5/100 to 30/100 by weight. Results showed that aerobic granules could form over the substrate N/COD ratios of 5/100 to 30/100, i.e. aerobic granulation would be independent of the substrate N/COD ratios applied. However, the substrate N/COD ratio showed a significant effect on microbial and physicochemical characteristics of aerobic granules. Nitrifying, denitrifying and heterotrophic populations would co-exist in aerobic granules, and shifts in microbial populations in the granules were closely related .to the substrate N/COD ratio. Elemental compositions of aerobic granules were highly related to the substrate N/COD ratios. Aerobic granules developed at high substrate N/ COD ratios exhibited enhanced nitrification efficiency, while DO concentration and mixing power significantly influenced the efficiency of denitrification by aerobic granules. It was demonstrated that the stability of aerobic granules could be significantly improved through selecting slow-growing nitrifying bacteria. The selection of nitrifying bacteria in aerobic granules could be achieved by manipulating the substrate N/COD ratio.
This thesis investigates analytically and numerically dynamic instability of elastic-plastic beams subjected to transverse impulsive load. The beam dynamic instability is characterized into two categories, i.e., symmetrical instability and asymmetrical instability. The symmetrical instability corresponds to the counter-intuitive response investigated by many previous researchers. The asymmetrical instability is defined as that a symmetrical beam loaded symmetrically experiences asymmetrical response when the load parameter is in a certain range. It is the first time to introduce the concept of the asymmetrical instability of elastic-plastic beams in the present study. A new three- degree-of-freedom (3-DoF) Shanleytype model is developed which is capable of capturing both the symmetrical and the asymmetrical instability of elastic-plastic beams. A general studying methodology, including sensitivity analysis, uncertainty analysis, energy analysis, analytical solution and numerical simulations, etc., is established to study the two types of beam dynamic instability. The effects of the impulsive load duration, material parameters, slenderness ratio, boundary conditions and load types on the beam dynamic instabilities are thoroughly explored.
PHD THESES
Flexural Behaviour of Confined High-Strength Concrete Columns

Candidate: Nguyen Ngoc Ba Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/101 This thesis is about a study on the flexural behaviour of plain and confined HSC columns. An experiment has been carried out on forty plain and reinforced concrete columns having either square or circular cross-sections. A new method for determining stress-strain curves of concrete from flexure tests was developed. A model for stress-strain curve of confined concrete subjected to flexure was proposed. The existing formulas for estimating lateral deflection of hinge-hinge RC columns under eccentric loading were refined in this thesis. A computer program was written to analyse confined concrete columns under eccentric loading, which can be used to evaluate confinement models for strain gradient problems. Existing equivalent rectangular stress blocks for design of HSC columns were evaluated and a new ERSB was proposed. The applicability of ERSB to design of members with noncircular cross-sections was investigated and adjustment of ERSB factors for such a case was proposed.
dynamic analysis were carried out. In addition, a seismic performance evaluation on walls with openings was performed. Based on the experimental and analytical results, a general design approach was proposed for the design of this kind of walls, in which flexural behaviours of the walls were studied for the selections of strut-andtie models and the determinations of overstrengths for the shear designs, so that the undesirable failure modes could be avoided.
Flexural Behavior and Design of Irregular Flat plate Floors

Candidate: Tavio Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/104 This thesis presents three relatively simple and effective procedures for computing bending moments and deflections of either regular or irregular reinforced concrete flat plate floors under gravity loading. The methods are applicable for predicting the deflections throughout the entire loading stages from the uncracked state to the fully cracked state and even up to the ultimate limit state. The first method deals with the grillage analysis based on the matrix or finite element formulation to determine the distribution of moments in the slab. To account for the nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete section and material, a combination of ACI effective moment of inertia, effective torsional rigidity, and reduced modulus of elasticity of concrete is incorporated in the analysis. Definitions of slab-beam elements, column dimensions and orientation are also generalized to take into account the irregularity of slab geometry and column layout. Essentially, the second procedure follows the ACI Direct Design Method. The total static moment in a particular design strip will be distributed to the midspan and support sections according to the distribution coefficients of the ACI Direct Design Method. Some generalizations are included to account for the effects of the irregularity of slab geometry and column layout. The definitions of effective span, width of design strips, torsional stiffness of transverse torsional members, as well as column dimensions and orientations will be generalized as far as practical. The latest method involves a finite element procedure incorporating the plate-bending element formulation. The effect of cracking is considered through the use of Bransons effective moment of inertia approach. Prior to cracking, the concrete is treated as isotropic elastic material. After cracking, the concrete is considered to be an orthotropic material. The influence of torsional moments is also taken into account in the formulation to obtain the total flexural moments in the slab. To accommodate the effect of material nonlinearity, the modulus of elasticity of concrete is also reduced. The method also accounts for the effect of cracking in beams if the beams exist. A test of a large-scale irregular multipanel reinforced concrete flat plate floor is also reported. The flat plate floor was supported on fourteen columns located irregularly over the floor layout. In the test, the flat plate floor was subjected to gravity loading until flexural failure occurred, which was then followed by punching failures around the columns. Only the flexural behavior is reported here. Its behavior with respect to punching shear had been reported earlier by Geng (2004). The accuracy of the proposed methods has been confirmed with the experimental data from several test slabs and regular multipanel flat plate floors available in literature, as well as two irregular multipanel flat plate floors tested at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore.
Effects of Lateral Soil Movements on Piles

Candidate: Miao Lingfeng Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/102 A series of model tests in soft clay were carried out to determine the ultimate soil pressure acting on the pile(s) undergoing lateral soil movement. Using a specially designed apparatus, single piles and pile groups with different pile spacings, numbers of piles and arrangements of piles were investigated. Numerical studies were also carried out using three-dimensional finite element analyses. For the back analyses of the single pile model tests, the computed ultimate soil pressures were in good agreement with those measured from the model tests. Parametric studies of full- scale piles indicated that the behaviour of the piles was significantly influenced by the pile flexibility, the magnitude of soil movement, the pile head boundary conditions, the shape of soil movement profile and the thickness of the moving soil mass. Based on the experimental and numerical results, a simplified method has been proposed to estimate the maximum pile bending moment.
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Design of Reinforced Concrete Walls with Openings for Strength and Ductility
Candidate: Wu Hui Report No: CEE/PhD/2005/103 In this study, experimental and analytical studies on the seismic design of structural walls with irregular openings were performed. Six flanged walls, consisting of one solid wall, three walls with irregular openings, and two walls with regular openings were tested under reversed cyclic loadings. A series of parametric studies on the walls with openings were performed using a reliable non-linear finite element programme. Both the quasi-static analysis and the
PUBLICATIONS
Publications of academic staff in journals and conference proceedings during the period from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005. Authors who are not members of School are marked by *
Agus, S.S.*, Leong, E.C. and Rahardjo, H., 2005. Estimating permeability functions of Singapore residual soils. Journal of Engineering Geology, April, Vol. 78, No. 1-2, pp. 119-133. Ai, J.J.*, Yu, S.C.M.*, Law, A.W.K. and Chua, L.P.*, 2005. Vortex dynamics in starting square water jets. Physics of Fluids, Vol. 17, Article 014106 (published on-line January 2005). Au, S.K., 2005. Reliability-based design sensitivity by efficient simulation. International Journal on Computers and Structures. Vol. 83, No. 14, pp.1048-1061. Au, S.K., 2005. Using approximate response for unbiased reliability analysis. Proceedings of the International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR05), Rome, Italy, 19-22 June 2005, CD-ROM. Au, S.K., Ching, J.* and Beck, J.L.*, 2005. Application of subset simulation methods to reliability benchmark problems. Proceedings of the International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR05), Rome, Italy, 19-22 June 2005, CD-ROM. Aw, T.G.*, Lim, T.H. and Gin, K.Y.H., 2005. Detection of coliphages in environmental water samples by real-time PCR. Proceedings of the NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Bhalla, S.* and Soh, C.K., 2004. Electromechanical impedance modeling for adhesively bonded piezo-transducers. Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, Vol. 15, No. 12, pp. 955972. Bhalla, S.*, Soh, C.K. and Liu, Z.X.*, 2005. Wave propagation approach for NDE using surface bonded piezo-ceramics. NDT&E International, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 143-150. Brownjohn, J.M.W.*, Rizos, C.*, Tan, G.H., and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Real-time long-term monitoring of static and dynamic displacements of an office tower, combining RTK GPS and accelerometer data. Proceedings of the 1st FIG International Symposium on Engineering Surveys for Construction Works and Structural Engineering, Nottingham, UK, 28 June 1 July 2004. Brownjohn, J.M.W.*, Tor, Y.K., Lau, C.L. and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Dynamic structural response monitoring of tall buildings using GPS. Report, RG-11/99, Applied Research Project, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. Chang, M.F. and Teo, P.*, 2004. Load transfer characteristics of bored piles in Singapores Old Alluvium. Proceedings of the 15th Southeast Asian Regional Conference, Bangkok, November, Vol. 1, pp. 217-222. Chang, M.F., and Zhu, H.*, 2004. Pressuremeter test for evaluating load transfer characteristics along bored piles in residual soils. Proceedings of the 2 nd International Conference on Site Characteristics, Porto, Portugal, September, Vol. 2, pp. 1431-1437. Cheah, C.Y.J., 2004. Public-private partnerships in infrastructure development: On value, risk and negotiation. Proceedings of the CIB W107 Globalization and Construction Symposium, Bangkok, Thailand, 17-19 November 2004, pp. 735-746. Cheah, C.Y.J., Garvin, M.J.* and Miller, J.B.*, 2004. Empirical study of strategic performance of global construction firms. ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 130, No. 6, pp. 808-817. Cheah, C.Y.J. and Wong, W.F., 2004. Management studies of the Chinese construction industry: Which field of theories? Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), Edinburgh, UK, 1-3 September 2004, pp. 949-956. Cheah, C.Y.J. and Chew, D.A.S., 2005. Dynamics of strategic management in the Chinese construction industry. Management Decision, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 551-567. Cheah, C.Y.J., Chen, P.H. and Ting, S.K., 2005. Globalization challenges, legacies, and civil engineering curriculum reform. ASCE Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Vol. 131, No. 2, pp. 105-110. Cheah, C.Y.J. and Liu, J., 2005. Real option evaluation of complex infrastructure projects: The case of Dabhol Power Project in India. Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 55-68. Cheah, C.Y.J. and Ting, S.K., 2005. Appraisal of value engineering in construction in Southeast Asia. International Journal of Project Management, UK, February, Vol. 23, No. 2,pp. 151-158. Chen, P.H., Wan, C.Y.*, Tiong, R.L.K., Ting, S.K., and Yang, Q.Z.*, 2004. Augmented IDEF1-based process-oriented information modeling. Automation in Construction, USA, November, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 735-750. Chen, P.H., Cui, L.*, Wan, C.Y., Yang, Q.Z.*, Ting, S.K., and Tiong, R.L.K., 2005. Implementation of IFC-based web server for collaborative building design between architects and structural engineers. Automation in Construction, USA, January, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 15-128. Chen, X.L., Zhao, Z.Y. and Liew, K.M.*, 2005. EFG based stability analysis of piezoelectric FGM plates subjected to electricity, heat and non-uniformly distributed loads. Boundary Elements XXVII, Orlando, USA, 15-17 March 2005, pp. 307-317. Chen, X.W. and Chiew, Y.M., 2004. Closure to Response of velocity and reynolds stress profiles to sudden change of bed roughness in openchannel flow. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, USA, Vol. 130, No. 6, pp. 586-589. Cheng, L.Y. and Tiong, R.L.K., 2005. Minimum feasible tariff for BOT water supply projects in Malaysia. Journal of Construction Management and Economics, UK, March, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 255263. Cheng, N.S., 2004. Analysis of bedload transport in laminar flows. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 27, No. 9, pp. 937-942. Cheng, N.S., 2004. Closure to Exponential formula for bedload transport. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 130, No. 5, pp. 474. Cheng, N.S. and Chua, L.H.C., 2005. Comparisons of sidewall correction of bed shear stress. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 131, No. 7, pp. 605-609. Chew, D.A.S., Yan, S. and Cheah, C.Y.J., 2004. Creating and sustaining competitiveness of small and medium-sized construction enterprises in China. Proceedings of the CIB W107 Globalization and Construction Symposium, Bangkok, Thailand, 17-19 November 2004, pp. 25-34.
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PUBLICATIONS
Chiew, S.P., Lee, C.K., Lie, S.T. and Ji, H.L., 2005. Numerical modelling of square tubular T-joints with a surface crack at corner. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures (ICASS-2005), Shanghai, China, 13-15 June 2005, Vol. 2, pp. 1159-1164 (ISBN/ISSN: 0-080446-37-X). Chiew, S.P., Lie, S.T., Lee, C.K. and Yu, Y., 2005. Debonding failure model for FRP retrofitted steel beams. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures (ICASS2005), Shanghai, China, 13-15 June 2005, Vol. 1, pp. 579-586 (ISBN/ ISSN: 0-080446-37-X). Chiew, Y.M., Lim, S.Y. and Cheng, N.S., 2004. Scour and Erosion. Editor of Conference Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Scour and Erosion, 2 Volumes. Ching, J.*, Au, S.K. and Beck, J.L.*, 2005. Reliability estimation of dynamical systems subject to stochastic excitation using subset simulation with splitting. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol. 194, No. 12-16, pp. 1557-1579. Ching, J.*, Beck, J.L.* and Au, S.K., 2005. Hybrid subset simulation method for dynamic reliability problems. Proceedings of the International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR05), Rome, Italy, 19-22 June 2005. CD-ROM. Chow, S.S., Gin, K.Y.H., Ke, J., Hu, C. and Reinhard, M.*, 2005. The analysis of endocrine disrupting chemicals in aqueous samples of various matrices with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Proceedings of the NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Chu, J. and Yan, S.W.*, 2004. Comparison of degree of consolidation estimated using settlement and pore water pressure for vacuum preloading projects. Proceedings of the 15th Southeast Geotechnical Conference, Bangkok, 22-26 November 2004, Vol. 1, pp. 543-548. Chu, J., Ho, M.G., Loke, W.L. and Leong, W.K., 2004. Effects of scour and hydraulic gradient on the stability of granular soil slope. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scour and Erosion, Singapore, 15-17 November 2004, Vol. 2, pp. 439-452. Chu, J., 2005. Unusual soil behaviour and its challenge to constitutive modeling. Invited Paper, International Workshop on Modern Trends in Geomechanics, Vienna, 27-29 June 2005. Chu, J., Goi, M.H. and Lim, T.T., 2005. Consolidation of cement treated sewage sludge using vertical drains. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 528-540. Chu, J., Klotz, C.* and Vermeer, P.A.*, 2005. The anisotropic behaviour of a structured soil in Singapore. Proceedings of the International Conference on Problematic Soils, Cyprus, 25-27 May 2005. Chu, J. and Yan, S.W.*, 2005. Estimation of degree of consolidation for vacuum preloading projects. International Journal of Geomechanics, ASCE, Vol. 5, N., 2, pp. 158-165. Chua, C.G.* and Goh, A.T.C., 2005. Estimating wall deflections in deep excavations using Bayesian neural networks. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 400-409. Chua, H.C.L. and Holz, K.P.*, 2005. Hybrid neural network-finite element river flow model. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 131, No. 1, pp. 52-59. Des Guo* and Yip, W.K., 2005. Behaviour of reinforced concrete column strengthened by prepacked concrete jacket. Proceedings of the 3 rd International Conference on Construction Materials: Performance, Innovations and Structural Implications, Vancouver, Canada, 11 pp. Dey, S. and Cheng, N.S., 2005. Reynolds stress in open channel flow with upward seepage. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Vol. 131, No. 4, pp. 451-457.
Dhakal, R.P.* and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Joint contribution to the deformation of RC beam-column sub-assemblies. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation (SEMC-2004), Cape Town, South Africa, 5-7 July 2004, Chapter 267, pp. 1671-1676. Dhakal, R.P.* and Pan, T.-C., 2005. Response of non-seismic frames to high-speed excitations. Proceedings of the International Conference on Structural and Road Transportation Engineering (START-2005), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, 3-5 January 2005. Dhakal, R.P.*, Pan, T.-C., Irawan, P., Tsai, K.-C.*, Lin, K.-C. and Chen, C.-H., 2005. Experimental study on dynamic response of gravity designed RC connections. Engineering Structures, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 75-87. Dharma Ronny Budi and Tan, K.H., 2005. A numerical study of rotational capacity of steel beams in fire. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures 2005 (ICASS05), China, 13-15 June 2005. Dharma Ronny Budi and Tan, K.H., 2005. Alternative approach for lateral torsional buckling of unrestrained beams in fire. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures 2005 (ICASS05), China, 13-15 June 2005. Faisal, A.* and Rahardjo, H., 2004. Unsaturated residual soils. Invited Paper. Proceedings of the Symposium on Tropical Residual Soil, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Malaysia, 6-7 July 2004.
Feng, J., Lim, T.T. and Dong, Z.L., 2004. Reductive transformation pathways and kinetics of carbon tetrachloride reduction by nano-scale zero-valent Fe and Fe/Ni. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Oxidation and Reduction Technologies for In-Situ Treatment of Soil and Groundwater, San Diego, California, USA, 2428 October 2004. Feng, J. and Lim, T.T., 2005. Pathways and kinetics of carbon tetrachloride and chloroform reductions by nano-scale Fe and Fe/Ni particles: comparison with commercial micro-scale Fe and Zn. Chemosphere, Vol. 59, No. 9, pp. 1267-1277. Fung, T.C., 2005. Higher order accurate time step integration algorithms by equal order polynomial projection. Journal of Vibration and Control, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 19-49. Gho, W.M. and Gao, F., 2004. Parametric equations for stress concentration factors in completely overlapped tubular K(N)-Joints. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Vol. 60, pp. 1761-1782. Gho, W.M., Gao, F. and Yang, Y., 2004. Stress concentration factors on completely overlapped tubular K(N)-joints under lap brace axial compression. Proceedings of the 18th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures & Materials, Perth, Western Australia, 1-3 December 2004, pp. 1115-1120. Gho, W.M., Yang, Y. and Gao, F., 2005. Cyclic performance of completely overlapped tubular joints. Proceedings of the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers, ISOPE-2005, Seoul, Korea, 19-24 June 2005, pp. 320-324. Gin, K.Y.H. and Neo, S.Y.*, 2005. Analysis of microbial populations in tropical reservoirs using flow cytometry. Journal of Environmental Engineering, Vol. 131, No. 8, pp. 1187-1193. Goh, A.T.C., 2005. Piles subjected to lateral ground movements. Invited paper, Special Seminar on Pile Foundation Practice, Institution of Engineers Singapore, Singapore, 18 February 2005, pp. 1-38. Goh, A.T.C. and Kulhawy, F.H.*, 2005. Reliability assessment of serviceability performance of braced retaining walls using a neural network approach. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 627-642. Goh, A.T.C., Kulhawy, F.H.* and Chua, C.G.*, 2005. Bayesian neural network analysis of undrained side resistance of drilled shafts. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 131, No. 1, pp. 84-93.
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Goh, K.H. and Lim, T.T., 2004. Geochemistry of inor ganic arsenic and selenium in a tropical soil: Effect of reaction time, pH, and competitive anions on arsenic and selenium adsorption. Chemosphere, Vol. 55, No. 6, pp. 849-859. Goh, K.H. and Lim, T.T., 2005. Arsenic extractability in a fine soil fraction and influence of various anions on its mobility in subsurface environment. Applied Geochemistry, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 229-239. Goh, P.K.* and Wong, Y.D., 2004. Effects of distance and speed on driver stop-versus-cross decision at traffic signals. Road and Transport Research, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 36-44. Goh, P.K.* and Wong, Y.D., 2004. A study of perception response time during the signal change interval. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 9-15. Goh, S.L., Wong, Y.D. and Sun, D.D., 2004. Reutilization of waste concrete into hot-mix asphalt pavement. EROU 2004, Singapore, 23 September 2004. Haijun Fang, Sun, D.D., Ming W., Phay, W. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Removal of humic acid foulant from ultrafiltration membrane surface using photocatalytic oxidation process. Water Science and Technology, Vol. 51, Issue 6-7, p. 373. Hay, C.T., Tan, H.L., Tang, T.M., Sun, D.D., Toh, A.C.*, Loh, C.K. and Lim, S., 2004. Reutilization of dredged marine clay into synthetic aggregate. Singapore Maritime and Port Journal (SMPJ). Hay, C.T., Khor, S.L., Sun, D.D., and Leckie, J.O.*, 2005. Minimization of sludge production using membrane bioreactor. Singapore Stanford Partnership Symposium, 31 May to 1 June 2005.
2006
Jiang, J.S.*, Law, A.W.K., and Cheng, N.S., 2005. Two phase analysis of vertical sediment-laden jets. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Vol. 125, No. 3, pp. 308-318. Krisdani, H., Rahardjo, H. and Leong, E.C., 2005. Behaviour of capillary barrier system constructed using residual soil. Proceedings of the Geo-Frontiers Conference on Innovative Barriers and Barrier Materials, Austin, Texas, USA, 24-26 January 2005. Lam, J.S.L., 2005. Major shipping dynamics influencing container port performance. Proceedings of the International Association of Maritime Economists Annual Conference, Cyprus, 23-25 June 2005. Lam, N.T.K.*, Pan, T.-C., Chandler, A.* and Megawati, K.* 2004. Cities without a seismic code II: Codification and risk assessment. Proceedings of the 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vancouver, Canada, 1-6 August 2004, Paper No. 141. Lan, S.R.*, Lok, T.S. and Heng, L.*, 2005. Composite structural panels subjected to explosive loading. Journal of Construction and Building Materials, Elsevier Science Publishing, UK, Vol. 19, Issue 5, pp. 387395. Law, A.W.K., Choi, E.C.C. and Britter, R.*, 2004. Re-entrainment around a low-rise industrial building: 2D versus 3D wind tunnel study. Journal of Atmospheric Environment, UK, Vol. 38, No. 23, pp. 38173825. Law, A.W.K. and Ho, W.F*. 2004. Further investigations on jet spreading in grid turbulence. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics, Hong Kong, China, 15-18 December 2004, pp. 325-329. Lee, C.K., Lie, S.T. and Shuai, Y.Y.*, 2004. On coupling of reproducing kernel particle method and boundary element method. Computational Mechanics (USA), Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 282-297. Lee, C.K., Lie, S.T., Chiew, S.P. and Shao, Y.B., 2005. Numerical models verification of cracked tubular T, Y and K-joints under combined loads. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 72, No. 7, pp. 983-1009. Lee, C.K. and Xu, Q.X.*, 2005. A new automatic adaptive 3D solid mesh generation scheme for thin-walled structures. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering (USA), Vol. 62, No. 11, pp. 1519-1558. Lee, S.*, Chang, L.M.*, and Chen, P.H., 2005. Performance comparison of bridge coating defect recognition methods. Corrosion, January, Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 12-20. Leong, E.C., Yeo, S.H. and Rahardjo, H., 2004. Measurement of wave velocities and attenuation using an ultrasonic test system. Canadian Geotechnical Journal (Canada), Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 844-860. Li, B. and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Seismic performances of reinforced concrete frames under low intensity earthquake effects. Proceedings of the 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 1-6 August 2004, Vancouver, Canada, Paper No. 127. Li, X.B.*, Lok, T.S. and Zhao, J.*, 2005. Dynamic characteristics of granite subjected to intermediate loading rate. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Springer-Verlag-Wien, Austria, February, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 21-39. Li, Y.H.*, Zhang, H.Q., Tang, C.A.*, Yu, Q.L.* and Zhao, Z.Y., 2004. A numerical approach for studying self-organized criticality behaviour in rock failure progress process. Proceedings of the International Conference on computational methods, Singapore, 15-17 December 2004. Lie, S.T., Lee, C.K., Chiew, S.P. and Shao, Y.B., 2004. Validation of stress intensity factors of a surface crack in tubular K-joints. Proceedings of the 18th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials, Perth, Australia,1-3 December 2004, pp. 1127-1133 (ISBN/ISSN: 9-058096-59-9).
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He, G.H.*, Show, K.Y., Yan, Y.G.*, Liu, J.L.*, and Zheng, Q.G.*, 2004. Minimization of biosludge production on anaerobic-aerobic treatment of industrial wastewater. Journal of Residuals Science and Technology, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 191-197. Hou, L., Gin, K.Y.H. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Degradation study of volatile disinfection by-products in a tropical soil aquifer system. Proceedings of the NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Huang, Z.F. and Tan, K.H., 2004. Simple structural models to predict critical temperature of a fire compartment within a semi-rigid steel frame. Proceedings of the 18th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials (ACMSM 18), Perth, Western Australia, 1-3 December 2004. Huang, Z.F. and Tan, K.H., 2005. 3-D Finite element simulation of the response of a steel frame subjected to fire. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures 2005 (ICASS05), China, 13-15 June 2005. Ivanov, V., Tay, J.-H., Tay, S.T.-L., Jiang, R.H.-L., 2004. Removal of micro-particles by microbial granules used for aerobic wastewater treatment. Water Science and Technology, Vol. 50, No. 12, pp. 147154. Ivanov, V., Stabnikov, V., Zhuang, W.-Q., Tay, S.T.- L. and Tay, J.-H., 2005. Phosphate removal from return liquor of municipal wastewater treatment plant using iron-reducing bacteria. Journal of Applied Microbiology, Vol. 98, pp. 1152-1161. Ivanov, V., Tay, J.-H., Liu, Q.-S., Wang, X.-H., Wang, Z-.W., Maszenan, B.A.M., Yi, S., Zhuang, W.-Q., Liu, Y.-Q., Pan, S. and Tay. S.T.-L., 2005. Microstructural optimization of wastewater treatment by aerobic granular sludge. In Stephan Bathe, Merle de Kreuk, Belinda McSwain, and Norbert Schwarzenbeck (Eds.) Aerobic Granular Sludge. Water and Environmental Management Series, London, IWA Publishing, pp. 43-52. Jiang, H.-L., Tay, J.-H., Maszenan, A.M, and Tay, S.T.-L., 2004. Bacterial diversity and function of aerobic granules engineered in a sequencing batch reactor for phenol degradation. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Vol. 70, No. 11, pp. 6767-6775.
PUBLICATIONS
Lie, S.T., Lee, C.K., Chiew, S.P. and Yang, Z.M., 2004. Numerical models in linear and non-linear FE analysis of cracked rectangular hollow section joints. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Methods, Singapore, 15-17 December 2004. Lie, S.T., Lee, C.K., Chiew, S.P. and Shao, Y.B., 2005. Validation of a surface crack stress intensity factor of a tubular K-Joint. International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, (UK), Vol. 82, No. 8, pp. 610617 (ISBN/ISSN: 0308-0161). Lie, S.T., Lee, C.K., Chiew, S.P. and Shao, Y.B., 2005. Mesh modelling and analysis of cracked uni-planar tubular K-Joints. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, (UK), Vol. 61, No. 2, pp. 235-264 (ISBN/ISSN: 0143-974X). Lie, S.T., Lee, C.K., Chiew, S.P. and Yang, Z.M., 2005. The ultimate behaviour of cracked square hollow section T-joints. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures (ICASS-2005), Shanghai, China,13-15 June 2005, Vol. 2, pp. 10991106 (ISBN/ISSN: 0-080446-37-X). Lie, S.T. and Shao, Y.B., 2005. Parametric equation of stress intensity factor for tubular K-joint under balanced axial loads. International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 666-679. Lie, S.T. and Shao, Y.B., 2005. Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) for tubular K-joints under balanced axial load Part II: Parametric equation. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures (ICASS 2005), Shanghai, P.R. China, 13-15 June 2005, pp. 1127-1132. Lim, C.H.*, Ong, Y.H.*, Seah, C.C.*, Seah, Y.T.*, Lu, Y. and Wu, C.Q.*, 2004. Ground shock prediction for underground ammunition storage safety. Proceedings of the 31st DOD Explosives Safety Seminar, San Antonio, Texas, 24-26 August 2004 (in CD-ROM). Lim, S.Y. and Nugroho, J.*, 2004. Observations on flow field around an abutment in a two-stage channel. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Scour and Erosion, Singapore, 14-17 November 2004, Vol. 1, pp. 156-164. Lim, S.Y. and Yang, S.Q., 2005. A simplified model of tractive-force distribution in closed conduits. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, USA, Vol. 131, No. 4, pp. 322-329. Lim, T.H., Chen, Y.H., Gin, K.Y.H., Chow, S.S., Reinhard, M.* and Tay, J.H., 2005. Kinetics of 17_-estradiol degradation in a recharge aquifer system. Proceedings of the NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Lim, T.H., Gin, K.Y.H., Chow, S.S., Chen, Y.H., Reinhard, M.* and Tay, J.H., 2005. Microcosm evaluation of 17_-estradiol transformation during groundwater recharge. Proceedings of the NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Lim, T.T., Chu, J., and Goi, M.H., 2004. Assessment of heavy metals leachability in clay-amended sewage sludge stabilized with cement for use as fill material. Journal of Residuals Science and Technology, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 157-164. Lim, T.T., Chui, P.C. and Goh, K.H., 2005. Process evaluation for optimization of EDTA use and recovery for heavy metal removal from a contaminated soil. Chemosphere, Vol. 58, No. 8, pp. 1031-1040. Lim, T.T. and Goh, K.H., 2005. Selenium extractability from a contaminated fine soil fraction: Implication on soil cleanup. Chemosphere, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 91-101. Liu, Q.S., Liu, Y., Tay, J.H. and Show, K.Y., 2005. Responses of sludge flocs to shear strength. Process Biochemistry, Vol. 40, pp. 3213-3217. Liu, Q.Y., Liu, Y. and Tay, J.H., 2004. The effects of extracellular polymeric substances on the formation and stability of biogranules. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol. 65, pp. 143-148.
Liu, Y. and Tay, J.H., 2004. State of the art of biogranulation technology for wastewater treatment. Biotechnology Advances, Vol. 22, pp. 533-563. Liu, Y., Liu, Q.S. and Tay, J.H., 2005. The initial conditions-dependent growth kinetics in microbial batch culture. Process Biochemistry, Vol. 40, pp. 155-160. Liu, Y.Q., Liu, Y. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Relationship between size and mass transfer resistance in aerobic granules. Letters in Applied Microbiology, Vol. 40, pp. 312-315. Liu, Y., Liu, Y.Q., Wang, Z.W., Yang, S.F. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Influence of substrate surface loading on the kinetic behaviours of aerobic granules. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol. 67, pp. 484-488. Liu, Y., Wang, Z.W., Liu, Y.Q., Qin, L. and Tay, J.H., 2005. A generalized model for settling velocity of aerobic granular sludge. Biotechnology Progress, Vol. 21, pp. 621-626. Liu, Y., Wang, Z.W., Qin, L., Liu, Y.Q. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Selection pressure-driven aerobic granulation in a sequencing batch reactor. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol. 67, pp. 26-32. Liu, Y., Wang, Z.W. and Tay, J.H., 2005. A unified theory for upscaling aerobic granular sludge sequencing batch reactor. Biotechnology Advances, Vol. 23, pp. 335-344. Liu, Y.-Q., Tay, J.W., Ivanov, V., Moy, Y.-P. B., Yu, L., and Tay, T.-L. S., 2005. Influence of phenol on nitrification by microbial granules. Process Biochemistry, Vol. 40, pp. 3285-3289. Lok, T.S. and Kulkarni, A.*, 2004. Woomera Trial: Response of cantilevers to air-blast loading in 5-tonne trial in Woomera, Australia. Final (Post-test) Technical Report to DSTA, November 2004. Lok, T.S. Lim, C.H. and Tan, J.S.Y.*, (Eds). December 2004. Protection of Structures against Hazards II -CI-Premier, Singapore. 330 pages. (ISBN 981-05-0613-9). Lok, T.S., Zhang, W.H. and Lim, C.H., 2004. Tensile failure of concrete subjected to shock loading. Proceedings of the 2 nd International Conference on Protection of Structures against Hazards, Singapore, 2-3 December 2004, CI-Premier, pp. 221-230. (ISBN 98105-0613-9). Lok, T.S., Zhao, P.J.*, Li, X.B.* and Lim, C.H., 2004. Characterizing dynamic properties of granite using SHPB. In Ohnishi, Y. and Aoki, K. (Eds.) Proceedings of the ISRM International Symposium 3rd Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium, Kyoto, Japan, 30 November 2 December 2004, Millpress Science Pub. Rotterdam, pp. 895-898. (ISBN 90-5966-022-6 Vol.2). Low, B.K., 2005. Reliability-based design applied to retaining walls. Geotechnique, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 63-75. Lu, Y. and Chiew Y.M., 2004. Using seepage as an auxiliary method for pier-scour countermeasure. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Scour and Erosion, 14-17 November 2004, Singapore, Vol. 2, pp. 70-77. Lu, Y., and Gao, F., 2004. Structural damage diagnosis using time domain acceleration response data. Proceedings of the 18 th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials, Perth, Australia,1-3 December 2004, pp. 1225-1230. Lu, Y., and Gu, X.M., 2004. Performance based seismic reliability evaluation of RC frames. Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Structural Engineering for Young Experts, Xian, China, 20-22 August 2004, pp. 530-536. Lu, Y., Xu, K., and Tan, S.C., 2004. Characterization of effect of reinforcing steel bars on concrete break-up under high-intensity explosive loading. Proceedings of the 31st DOD Explosives Safety Seminar, San Antonio, Texas, 24-26 August 2004, (CD-ROM).
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Lu, Y., 2005. Inelastic behaviour of RC wall-frame system and its analysis incorporating three-dimensional effects. The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings. Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 15-35. Lu, Y., 2005. Underground blast induced ground shock and its prediction using Artificial Neural Network. Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 164-178. Lu, Y., and Gao, F., 2005. A novel time domain auto-regressive model for structural damage diagnosis. Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 283, No. 3-5, pp. 1031-1049. Lu, Y., Gu, X.M., and Guan, J., 2005. Probabilistic drift limits and performance evaluation of RC columns. Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 131, No. 6, pp. 966-978. Ma, G.W., Liu, Y.M.*, Zhao, J.* and Li, Q.M.*, 2005. Dynamic instability of elastic-plastic beam. International Journal of Mechanical Science, Vol. 47, pp. 43-62. Ma, G.W. and Ye, Z.Q., 2005. Analysis of foam claddings for blast alleviation. Proceedings of International Conference on Impact Loading of Lightweight Structures, Florianopolis, Brazil, 8-12 May 2005, pp. 359-372. Mao, T., Hong, S.Y.*, Show, K.Y., Tay, J.H. and Lee, D.J.*, 2004. A comparison of ultrasound treatment on primary and secondary sludges. Journal of Water Science and Technology, Vol. 50, No. 9, pp. 91-97. Megawati, K.*, Lam, N.T.K.*, Chandler, A.* and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Cities without a seismic code I: Hazard assessment. Proceedings of the 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vancouver, Canada, 1-6 August 2004, Paper No. 129. Megawati, K.*, Pan, T.-C., and Koketsu, K.*, 2005. Response spectral attenuation relationships for Sumatran-subduction earthquakes and the seismic hazard implications to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Journal of Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 1125. Melinda, F.*, Rahardjo, H., Han, K.K.* and Leong, E.C., 2004. Shear strength of compacted soil under infiltration condition. ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, August, Vol. 130, No. 8, pp. 807-817. Na, Y.M.*, Choa, V., Teh, C.I. and Chang, M.F., 2005. Geotechncial parameters of reclaimed sandfill from cone penetration test. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, February, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 91-109. Naidu, A.S.K.*, Bhalla, S.* and Soh, C.K., 2004. Recent developments in smart systems based structural health monitoring. National Conference on Materials and Structures, NIT-Warangal, India, 23-24 January 2004, pp. 273-278. Nguyen, Trieu Thai Son and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Response of steel structures to ground shocks. Proceedings of the 10th National Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme Congress, Singapore, 25 September 2004, Agency for Science, Technology and Research. Ohno, T.*, Krauthammer, T.* and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Design and analysis of protective structures against impact/impulsive/shock loads. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Design and Analysis of Protective Structures against Impact/Impulsive/Shock Loads (DAPSIL-2003), National Defence Academy of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, 15-18 December. Olszewski, P. and Xie, L.*, 2004. Traffic response to peak period variable road pricing. Proceedings of the Intelligent Transportation Society (Singapore) Symposium 2004, 8-9 July 2004. Olszewski, P. and Wibowo, S.S.*, 2005. Using equivalent walking distance to assess pedestrian accessibility to transit stations in Singapore. Proceedings of the 84 th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, USA, 9-13 January 2005 (CD-ROM).
Olszewski, P. and Xie, L.*, 2005. Modelling the ef of road pricing fects on traf in Singapore. Transportation Research Part A, Vol. fic 39A, pp. 755-772. Ong, K.C.G., Tam, C.T. and Tan, T.H., 2004. Proceeding of the 29th Conference on Our World in Concrete and Structures. Our World in Concrete and Structures, Singapore, 25-26 August 2004. Ong, M.C., Lim, S.Y., Yu, G. and Tan, S.K., 2004. Abutment scour using lightweight bed material. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Scour and Erosion, Singapore, 14-17 November 2004, Vol. 1, pp. 187-198. Pan, T.-C., 2004. From ground shocks to air blast multiple-hazard protection. Keynote Paper, Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia, The Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and the International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS/INCEDE), Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 18-19 October 2004, Agra, India, pp. 1-13. Pan, T.-C., 2004. Protecting buildings against multiple hazards. ICUS/ INCEDE Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 3, OctDec, 2003, International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan. Pan, T.-C., Brownjohn, J.M.W.* and You, X.T., 2004. Correlating measured and simulated dynamic responses of a tall building to longdistance earthquakes. Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, International Association for Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 611-632. Pan, T.-C. and Lim, C.L., 2004. Approximate method for response of a structure subjected to explosion-induced ground motions. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation (SEMC-2004), Cape Town, South Africa, 5-7 July 2004. Pan, T.-C., You, X. T. and Cheng, K.W., 2004. Building response to long-distance major earthquakes. Proceedings of the 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vancouver, Canada, 1-6 August 2004, Paper No. 804. Pan, T.-C., You, X.T. and Cheng, K.W., 2004. Response of Singapore buildings to long-distance major Sumatra earthquakes. Invited Paper, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Continental Earthquakes, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China, 12-14 July 2004. Pan, T.-C. and Zhang, X., 2004. A case study for reinforced concrete structural collapse analysis Literature review on blast phenomena and modelling. Technical Report No. 1, PTRC-CEE/MHA/2003.07, Protective Technology Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University. Pan, T.-C., 2005. Long-distance major Sumatra earthquakes seismic hazard and vulnerability, Singapores perspective. Keynote Paper, Proceedings of the, Strategic Planning Workshop 2005 Seismic Hazard Analysis of Peninsula Malaysia for Structural Design Purpose, Structural Earthquake Engineering Research, University of Technology Malaysia, Genting Highland, Malaysia, 21-24 April 2005. Pan, T.-C., 2005. Protecting building structures against multiple hazards. Keynote Paper, Proceedings of the 1 st International Conference of Urban Disaster Reduction, Kobe, Japan, 18-19 January 2005, pp. II-2.1 II-2.8. Pan, T.-C., 2005. Protection of buildings against multiple hazards. Invited Paper, Proceedings of the Fire and Emergency Services Asia 2005 - The New Threat Environment: Protecting the Community, National Fire Prevention Council, Singapore, 22-24 February 2005, pp. 202211.
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Pan, T.-C., Lu, Y., Tan, K.H., Zhang, X., Wang, Z. and Hu, O., 2005. A case study for reinforced concrete structural collapse analysis. Final Report No. NTU/PTRC/2005.01, Protective Technology Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University. Pan, T.-C. and Megawati, K.*, 2005. Prediction of maximum probable strong ground motion in Singapore due to Sumatra earthquakes. Report RGM-16/00, Applied Research Project, Protective Technology Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. Pan, T.-C., You, X.T. and Cheng, K.W., 2005. Assessment of ground motion amplification and building damages. Report RGM-42/00, Applied Research Project, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. Porter, K.A.*, Beck, J.L.*, Shaikhutdinov, R.V.*, Au, S.K., Mizukoshi, K.*, Miyamura, M.*, Ishida, H.*, Moroi, T.*, Tsukada, Y.* and Masuda, M.*, 2004. Effect of seismic risk on lifetime property value. Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 1211-1237. Qin, L., Liu, Y. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Denitrification on poly-_hydroxybutyrate in microbial granular sludge sequencing batch reactor. Water Research, Vol. 39, pp. 1503-1510. Qin, Q.W.*, Gin, K.Y.H., Lee, L.Y.*, Gedaria, A.I.* and Zhang, S.*, 2005. Development of a flow cytometry based method for rapid and sensitive detection of a novel marine fish iridovirus in cell culture. Journal of Virological Methods, Vol. 125, No. 1, pp. 49-54. Rahardjo, H., Lee, T.T., Leong, E.C. and Rezaur, R.B., 2005. Response of a residual soil slope to rainfall. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, April, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 340-351. Remesh Kuzhikkali and Tan, K.H., 2005. Inter-layer mixing in building units during fire. Fire and Emergency Services Asia 2005, Singapore, 22-26 February 2005. Remesh Kuzhikkali and Tan, K.H., 2005. Sensitivity of wall thermal diffusivity on the fire dynamics in zone model. Fire and Emergency Services Asia 2005, Singapore, 22-26 February 2005. Rong, X.*, and Lo, E.Y., 2004. On the stability of shoaling Stokes waves over a slowly varying bottom. Applied Ocean Research, Vol. 26, No. 5, pp. 205-212. Sachidanandham, R.*, Gin, K.Y.H. and Poh, C.L.*, 2005. Monitoring of active but non-culturable bacterial cells by flow cytometry. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 89, No. 1, pp. 24-31. Show, K.Y. and Tay, J.H., 2004. Conversion of sludge into novel materials for construction applications. Transactions of the Materials Research Society of Japan, Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 1957-1960. Sachs, T.*, Tiong, R. and Koo, J., 2005. Establishment of foreign construction companies in Korea and the Korean construction industry in a foreign perspective. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Globalization and Construction 2004, CIB and AIT Bangkok, 1719 November 2004, pp. 421-432. Singh, D.*, Goh, N.H. and Tiong, R.L.K., 2005. Procurement and contract award practices A review of the Singapore construction industry. Proceedings of the 9th Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors Congress, 27-28 June 2005, China, pp. 140-151. Singh, D.* and Tiong, R.L.K., 2005. A fuzzy decision framework for contractor selection. Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, Vol. 131, No. 1, pp. 62-70. Singh, D.* and Tiong, R.L.K., 2005. Development of life cycle costing framework for highway bridges in Myanmar. International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 23, pp. 37-44. Soh, C.K., Liu, Y. and Yang, Y.W., 2005. Closure to A displacement equivalence-based damage model for brittle materials, Part I: Theory; Part II: Verification 2005. ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol. 72, pp. 306-307. Journal of Applied Mechanics, ASME, Vol. 72, No. 1, pp. 308.
Stabnikova, O., Ang, S.S., Liu, X.-Y., Ivanov, V., Tay, J.-H., Wang, J.Y., 2005. The use of Hybrid Anaerobic Solid-Liquid (HASL) system for the treatment of lipid-containing food waste. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Vol. 80, No. 4, pp. 455-461. Sun, D.D., Leckie, J.O.* and Lee, P.F., 2005. Removal of membrane foulant using nano-structured material. Proceedings of the NTUStanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Sun, D.D., Lee, P.F. and Leckie, J.O.*, 2005. Development of nanostructured material for membrane fouling control in water treatment system. Proceedings of the 1st NTU Nano Symposium, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 29 January 2005. Tami, D., Rahardjo, H. and Leong, E.C., 2004. Effects of hysteresis on steady-state infiltration in unsaturated slopes. ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, September, Vol. 130, No. 9, pp. 956-967. Tami, D., Rahardjo, H., Leong, E.C. and Fredlund, D.G.*, 2004. Design and laboratory verification of a physical model of sloping capillary barrier. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, October, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 814-830. Tan, K.H. and Tong Kebo*, 2004. Strut and tie analysis for deep beams with different web reinforcement and openings. Proceedings of the 18th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials (ACMSM 18), Perth, Western Australia, 1-3 December 2004. Tan, K.H., Phng, G.H.* and Toh, W.S.*, 2004. Fire resistance of composite steel-concrete columns: Experimental evaluation and numerical analysis. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Steel and Composite Structures, Seoul, South Korea, 2-4 September 2004. Tan, K.H., Tang, C.Y. and Tong, K.*, 2004. Shear strength predictions of pierced deep beams with inclined web reinforcement. Magazine of Concrete Research (UK), Vol. 56, No. 8, pp. 443-452. Tan, K.H., Toh W.S.* and Phng, G.H.*, 2004. Fire resistance of steel columns subjected to different restraint ratios. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Steel and Composite Structures, Seoul, South Korea, 2-4 September 2004. Tan, K.H. and Yao Yao, 2004. Fire resistance of RC columns subjected to 1-, 2-, and 3-face heating. ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering (US), Vol. 130, No. 11, pp. 1820-1828. Tan, K.H. and Huang, Z.F., 2005. Structural responses of axially restrained steel beams with semi-rigid moment connection in fire. ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering (US), Vol. 131, No. 4, pp. 541-551. Tan, L.H., Gin, K.Y.H., Hu, C., Ke, J., Chow, S.S. and Reinhard, M.*, 2005. The fate of endocrine disrupting chemicals during soil aquifer treatment. Proceedings of the NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Tan, S.C.*, Lu, Y., Xu, K. and Weerheijm, J.*, 2004. Development of debris break-up model and its initial verification against DLV clamped slab test. Proceedings of the 31st DOD Explosives Safety Seminar, San Antonio, Texas, 24-26 August 2004, (CD-ROM). Tan, T.H. and Nguyen Ngoc Ba, 2004. Applicability of AS 3600:2001 and NZS 3101:1995 to circular high strength concrete columns. Proceedings of the 18th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials (ACMSM 18), Perth, Western Australia, 13 December 2004, pp. 887-892. Tan, T.H. and Nguyen Ngoc Ba, 2005. Flexural behaviour of confined high-strength concrete columns. American Concrete Institute Structural Journal, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 198-205.
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Tang, C.Y. and Tan, K.H., 2004. An interactive mechanical model for shear strength of deep beams. ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering (US), Vol. 130, No. 10, pp. 1534-1544. Tay, C.M., Tan, K.M., Tjin, S.C., Chan, C.C. and Rahardjo, H., 2004. Humidity sensing using plastic optical fibers. Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, 5 December 2004, Vol. 43, No.5, pp. 387-390. Tay, C.M., Tan, K.M., Tjin, S.C., Chan, C.C. and Rahardjo, H., 2004. Humidity sensing using plastic optical fibers. In Anbo Wang (Ed.) Proceedings of SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering, Sensors for Harsh Environments, Philadelphia, PA, USA, 27 October 2004, Vol. 5590, pp. 77-83. Tay, J.H., Liu, Q., Liu, Y., Show, K.Y., Ivanov, V. and Tay, S. T.L., 2004. Aerobic granulation in a pilot-scale SBR. Invited Paper, Workshop on Aerobic Granular Sludge, Institute of Water Quality and Waste Management, Munich, Germany, 27-28 September 2004. Tay, J.H. and Show, K.Y., 2004. Issue Editors, Resources from Sludge: Forging New Frontiers. Journal of Water Science and Technology, the International Water Association, Vol. 50, Issue 9. Tay, J.H., Show, K.Y. and Hung, Y.T.*, 2004. Seafood processing wastewater treatment. In Lawrence K Wang, Yung-Tse Hung, Howard H. Lo, and Constantine Yapijakis (Editors) Handbook of Industrial and Hazardous Waste Treatment, 2nd ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, pp. 647-684. Tay, J.H., Show, K.Y., Lee, D.J.* and Hong, S.Y.*, 2004. Reuse of wastewater sludge with marine clay as a new resource of construction aggregates. Journal of Water Science and Technology, Vol. 50, No. 9, pp. 189-196. Tay, J.H., Show, K.Y. and Lua, C.H., 2004. Water pollution in the Asia Pacific-basics, status, challenges, responses and outlook. Invited Paper, Proceedings of the UNEP Asia-Pacific Leadership Programme on Environmental and Sustainable Development, Shanghai, China, 2631 July 2004. Tay, J.-H., Tay, S.T.-L., Ivanov, V. and Hung, Y.-T.*, 2004. Application of biotechnology for industrial waste treatment. In Lawrence K Wang, Yung-Tse Hung, Howard H. Lo, Constantine Yapijakis, (Eds.) Handbook of Industrial Wastes Treatment. 2nd Edition, revised and expanded, Marcel Dekker, N.Y., pp. 585-618. Tay, J.H., Liu, Q., Liu, Y., Show, K.Y., Ivanov, V. and Tay, S.T.L., 2005. A comparative study of aerobic granulation in pilot- and laboratory-scale SBRs. In Stephan Bathe, Merle de Kreuk, Belinda McSwain, and Norbert Schwarzenbeck, (Eds.) Aerobic Granular Sludge. Water and Environmental Management Series. London, IWA Publishing, pp. 125-134. Tay, S.T.-L., Moy B.Y.-P., Maszenan, A.M. and Tay, J.-H., 2005. Comparing activated sludge and aerobic granules as microbial inoculum for phenol biodegradation. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. On line publication January 2005 1007/s00253-0041858-1. Ting, S.K., 2004. Use of recycled aggregates in structural concrete. Invited lecture, National Construction Environment Seminar, NEA & SCAL, Singapore, 2 September 2004, 12 p. Tiwari, M., Chu, J. and Teh, C.I., 2004. Effect of loading mode and rate on the drained behavior of marine clay. Proceedings of the 15th Southeast Geotechnical Conference, Bangkok, 22-26 November 2004, pp. 67-72. Tran, Cao Thanh Ngoc and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Effects of earthquake ground motion to various kind of buildings. Proceedings of the 10th National Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme Congress, 25 September 2004, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore. Tu, Z.G., and Lu, Y., 2004. A robust stochastic genetic algorithm (StGA) for global numerical optimization. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation. Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 456-470.
Wanatowski, D. and Chu, J., 2004. Drained behaviour of sand under plane-strain conditions. Proceedings of the 15th Southeast Geotechnical Conference, Bangkok, 22-26 November 2004, pp. 61-66. Wang, Y.*, Show, K.Y., Tay, J.H. and Sim, K.H.*, 2004. Effects of cationic polymer on start-up and granulation in UASB reactors. Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Vol. 79, No. 3, pp. 219-228. Wang, Z.H., Au, S.K. and Tang, K.H., 2005. Heat transfer analysis using a Greens function approach for uniformly insulated steel members subjected to fire. Engineering Structures, Vol. 27, pp. 15511562. Wang, Z.Q.*, Lu, Y., Hao, H.* and Chong, K.*, 2004. A full coupled numerical analysis approach for buried structures subjected to subsurface blast. Computers and Structures. Vol. 83, No. 4-5, pp. 339356. Wang, Z.Q.* and Cheng, N.S., 2005. Secondary flows over artificial bed strips. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 441-450. Wong, T.S.W., 2005. Discussion of Kinematic wave model of urban pavement rainfall-runoff subject to traffic loadings by Chad M. Cristina and John J. Sansalone. Journal of Environmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 131, No. 1, p. 170. Wong, T.S.W., 2005. Influence of loss model on design discharge of homogeneous plane. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 131, No. 2, pp. 210-217. Wong, T.S.W., 2005. Kinematic wave method for storm drainage design. In J.H. Lehr and J. Keeley (Eds.) Water Encyclopedia: Surface and Agricultural Water. John Wiley, Ostrander, Ohio, USA, pp. 242245. Wong, W.F. and Cheah, C.Y.J., 2004. Issues of contractual chain and sub-contracting in the construction industry. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), Edinburgh, UK, 1-3 September 2004, pp. 671680. Wong, Y.D., Ho, J.S.* and Foo, H.Y.T.*, 2004. Left-Turn-On-Red traffic scheme in Singapore. ITE Journal, Vol. 74, No. 11, pp. 24-29. Wu, C.Q.*, Hao, H.* and Lu, Y., 2004. Numerical simulation of damage of masonry and masonry infilled RC frame structures to blast ground motions. Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Structural Engineering for Young Experts, Xian, China, 20-22 August 2004, pp. 523-529. Wu, C.Q.*, Hao, H.* and Lu, Y., 2005. Dynamic response and damage analysis of masonry structures and masonry infilled RC frames to blast ground motion. Engineering Structures, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 323-333. Wu, M., Sun, D.D., Chung, M. and Tay, J.H., 2004. Nanofiltration of semiconductor indium phosphide wastewater for direct reuse. IWA Congress at Marrakech, 19-24 September 2004. Wu, M., Sun, D.D. and Tay, J.H., 2004. Effect of operating variables on rejection of indium using nanofiltration membranes. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 240, Issue 1-2, pp. 105-111. Wu, M., Sun, D.D. and Tay, J.H., 2004. Separation of indium using nanofiltration membranes: a non-stead-state study. Journal of Membrane Science, 1 November 2004, Vol. 243, Issues 1-2, pp. 215222. Wu, M., Sun, D.D., Tay, J.H. and Jiang, Y., 2004. Membrane surface study using atomic force microscopy and its impact on wastewater recycling wastewater cost. Journal of Ultrapure Water, 1-5 September 2004, UP210620. Wu, M. and Sun, D.D., 2005. Characterization and reduction of membrane fouling during nanofiltration of semiconductor indium phosphide (InP) wastewater. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 259, No. 1-2, p. 135.
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Wu, M., Sun, D.D. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Characterization and ultrafiltration of semiconductor indium phosphide (InP) wastewater for recycling. Journal of Environmental Technology, Vol. 26, pp. 111120. Xie, S., Lim, T.H., Gin, K.Y.H. and Tay, J.H., 2005. Rapid detection of active bacterial populations in diverse environmental waters using flow cytometry. Proceedings of the NTU-Stanford Symposium on the Environment: Technological Challenges for Water Resources and the Environment, Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, 31 May to 1 June 2005. Xu, H., Tay, J.H., Foo, S.K., Yang, S.F. and Liu Y., 2004. Removal of dissolved copper and zinc by aerobic granular sludge. Water Science and Technology, Vol. 50, pp. 155-160. Xu, K., Lu, Y. and Lie, S.T., 2004. Analysis of non-loading carrying fillet weld joints using SGBEM. International Journal of Fracture, Vol. 129, No. 2, pp. 149-159. Xu, K., Lu, Y. and Lie, S.T., 2005. Load-carrying welded joints analysis using boundary element method. International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 42, No. 9-10, pp. 2965-2975. Yan, S.W.* and Chu, J. 2004. Use of explosive method in the soil improvement works of a highway project. Geotechnical Engineering, Proceeding of ICE, London, Vol. 157, GE4, pp. 259-265. Yang, H., Rahardjo, H., Leong, E.C. and Fredlund, D.G.*, 2004. Factors affecting drying and wetting soil-water characteristic curves of sandy soils. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, October, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 908-920. Yang, H., Rahardjo, H., Leong, E.C. and Fredlund, D.G.*, 2004. A study of infiltration on three sand capillary barriers. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, August, Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 629-643. Yang, H., Rahardjo, H., Wibawa, B. and Leong, E.C., 2004. A soil column apparatus for laboratory infiltration study. Geotechnical Testing Journal, ASTM International, July, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 347355. Yang, R., Wong, K.K.F.* and Pan, T.-C., 2004. Predictive inelastic state control of modern structures during earthquakes. Journal of Structural Control and Health Monitoring, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 291 309. Yang, S.F., Tay, J.H. and Liu, Y., 2005. Effect of substrate N/COD ratio on the formation of aerobic granules. Journal of Environmental Engineering, Vol. 131, pp. 86-92. Yang, S.Q.*, Tan, S.K. and Lim, S.Y., 2004. Velocity and sediment concentration profiles in sediment- laden flows. Journal of China Ocean Engineering, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp: 229-244. Yang, S.Q.*, Tan, S.K. and Lim, S.Y., 2004. Velocity distribution and dip phenomena in smooth and straight open channel flow. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 1 December 2004, Vol. 130, No. 12, pp. 1179-1186. Yang, S.Q., Tan, S.K. and Lim, S.Y., 2004. Prediction of total sediment discharge. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Scour and Erosion, Singapore, 14-17 November 2004, Vol. 2, pp. 169-176. Yang, S.Q. and Lim, S.Y., 2005. Boundary shear stress distributions in trapezoidal channels. Journal of Hydraulic Research, International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 98-102.
Yang, S.Q., Lim, S.Y. and McCorquodale, J.A.*, 2005. Investigation of near wall velocity in 3-D smooth channel flows. Journal of Hydraulic Research, International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 149-157. Yang, W.*, Fung, T.C., Chian, K.S.*, and Chong, C.K.*, 2004. Parameters for scaffold design of esophageal tissue from a structural constitutive model. Proceedings of the 1st International Bioengineering Conference 2004. Bioengineering: Challenges and Innovations, Singapore, 8-10 September 2004, Paper ID: P.15.96. Yang, Y.W., Soh, C.K. and Xu, J.F.*, 2004. An integrated evolutionary programming and impedance-based NDE method. Smart Structures, Devices and Systems II, Proceedings of the SPIE International Symposium on Smart Materials, Nano-, and Micro-Smart Systems, December, Sydney, Australia, Vol. 5649, pp. 154-161. Yang, Y.W., Jin, Z.L.* and Soh, C.K., 2005. Integrated optimal design of vibration control system for smart beams using genetic algorithms. Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 282, No. 5, pp. 1293-1307. Yang, Y.W., Wang, C. and Soh, C.K., 2005. Force identification of dynamic systems using genetic programming. International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering, Vol. 63, No. 9, pp. 1288-1312. Yang, Y.W., Xu, J.F.* and Soh, C.K., 2005. Generic impedance-based model for structure-piezoceramic interacting system. Journal of Aerospace Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 93-101. Yao Yao and Tan, K.H., 2004. Rankine method for reinforced concrete columns under fire conditions. Proceedings of the 18th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials (ACMSM 18), Perth, Western Australia, 1-3 December 2004. Yap, W.Y.* and Lam, J.S.L., 2004. An interpretation of inter-container port relationships from the demand perspective. Maritime Policy and Management, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 337-355. Ye, S.D. and Tiong, R., 2005. PPP in Singapore, and key issues and major pitfalls in structuring a PPP deal. EU-Asia PPP Network Workshop on BOT/PPP, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, pp. F111. Yip, Y.B.*, Fock, W.T.* and Olszewski, P., 2005. Measuring walking accessibility to public transport. Journal of the IES, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 64-77. Yu Guoliang*, Tan Soon Keat, Lim Siow Yong and Ong Muk Chen*, 2005. Flow structure and sediment motion around submerged vanes in open channel. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, May, Vol. 131, No. 3, pp. 132-136. Yuen, K.V. *, Beck, J.L.* and Au, S.K., 2004. Structural damage detection and assessment by adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. Structural Control and Health Monitoring, Vol. 11, pp. 327-347. Zhang, Y.Q., Lu, Y., and Qiang, H.F.*, 2004. Strain localization analysis for elastoplastic damage geomaterials at plane stress and plane strain. Archive of Applied Mechanics, Vol. 74, No. 1-2, pp. 102-117. Zhao, Z.Y. and Yuan, W.F., 2004. Evaluation of singular integrals in the symmetric galerkin boundary element method. Journal of Advances in Engineering Software, Vol. 35, pp. 781-789. Zhou, Z.X.*, Lo, E.Y. and Tan, S.K., 2005. Effect of shallow and narrow water on added mass of cylinders with various cross-sectional shapes. Ocean Engineering, Vol. 32, pp. 1199-1215.
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CEE - rb19 Civil Eng Research

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CONTENTS

School of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Nanyang Technological University

ADDITIONAL COPIES AND ENQUIRIES

Printed by PHOTOPLATES PTE LTD

Major Research Group Structures and Mechanics

Construction Technology and Management

Water Resources Transportation

submerged vegetated flow

Experimental investigation of flow structures and mixing processes in vegetated flows

non-submerged vegetated flow Figure 1. Two examples of vegetated flows

Civil Engineering Research

Figure 4. Sketch of a typical compound open channel

Centre for Advanced Construction Studies (CACS)

Civil Engineering Research

Centre for Transportation Studies (CTS)

Geotechnical Research Centre (GRC)

Environmental Engineering Research Centre (EERC)

Maritime Research Centre (MRC)

R & D Projects MPA-NTU JOINT PROJECTS

Protective Technology Research Centre (PTRC)

Civil Engineering Research

Research Projects and Activities

Greener and cheaper way to treat wastewater-IESE (PUB-NTU-IESE collaboration Project)

Civil Engineering Research

Valuation of guarantee as a put option

Brief background of the Malaysia-Singapore Second Crossing

Standard Deviation of Traffic Volume

Figure 1. Evaluation model for revenue shortfall

0.55 1.10 1.65 2.20 2.75 3.30

26.7 46.6 60.2 85.6 112.2 140.1

Figure 2. Frequency distribution chart of total subsidy SD

Civil Engineering Research

References Sensitivity analysis of option values

SWOT analysis of Chinese construction SMEs

Development strategies to create and sustain competitiveness for construction SMEs

Civil Engineering Research

Problems of Overseas Ventures for Singapore Construction SMEs

* Ceased overseas operation since 1997 ** Large contractor

Research motivation and objective

Competitive Strategies and Competitive Advantages of Large Chinese Construction Enterprises

Figure 1. Components of competitive advantage and related hypotheses

Selected analytical results

.013 .384** .159 .217** .044 .227 5.703***

.062 .358** .130 .229** .004 .212 5.166***

Civil Engineering Research

Research Findings on International Strategic Management of Chinese Construction Firms

Lack of experienced and versatile personnel for international business management.

Summary of research findings

Strengths and weaknesses construction firms

Civil Engineering Research

Inside building structures: wide doors and narrow doors

Solution to the one-source multi-door problem

Conclusions and future work

(a) Evacuation profile

X=Li/V+Ni/Wi Ni=(X-Li/V)*Wi Substitute Ni in (1) with Ni in (4), we get:

(b) Evacuation routes Figure 1. Output of the program

A shopping mall case

Material and Methods

Klebsiella pneumoniae strain D Pseudomonas veronii strain E

Biosafety screening of strains

Enhanced formation of granules

.013 .384 .159 .217 .044 .227 5.703***

.062 .358 .130 .229 .004 .212 5.166***