PSC

Preparation
Handbook
Building and
Architecture
Engineering

Surendra Maharjan
Table of Contents
1 water power engineering................................................................................................................2
1.1 General Layout Plan of Hydropower Project...........................................................................2
1.2 Intakes.................................................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Type of Hydropower Projects..................................................................................................3
1.3.1 Run of River (ROR).........................................................................................................3
1.3.2 Peaking Run of River (PROR).........................................................................................3
1.4 Pressure - Void Ratio Curves.................................................................................................4
2 foundation engineering.................................................................................................................. 5
2.1 Site Investigation and Soil Exploration of Bridge Sites............................................................5
2.2 Soil Exploration of Bridge Site.................................................................................................5
2.3 Earth Pressure and Retaining Structures................................................................................5
2.3.1 Plastic equilibrium in soils: Active and Passive States*....................................................5
2.3.2 lateral earth pressure theory............................................................................................5
2.3.3 Rankine's earth pressure theory......................................................................................8
1 BASIC PRINCIPLE OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

1.1 Construction Management

Management is the science and art of planning, organizing, leading and controlling the work of
organization members and using all available organization resources to reach stated organization
goal.
Management is the planning and control of resources (4 Ms: Money, Manpower, Machine and
Material) within the framework of a project. Construction management is the process of planning,
coordinating and providing monitoring and controlling of a construction project. It deals with
economical consumption of the resources available in the least possible time for the successful
completion of construction project.
The main objectives of construction management are
 Completing the work within the estimated budget and specified time.
 Maintaining a reputation for high quality workmanship
 Taking sound decisions and delegations of authority
 Developing an organization that works as a team

1.1.1 Functions of construction managemen

a) Planning
b) Scheduling
c) Organizing
d) Staffing
e) Directing
f) Controlling
g) Coordinating
Planning
Planning involves defining objectives of the project, listing of tasks or jobs that must be performed,
determining gross requirements for resources and preparing estimates of costs and durations for the
various jobs or activities to bring about the satisfactory completion of the projects. It essentially covers
the aspectos of what to do and how to do
Scheduling
Scheduling is the fitting of the final work plan to a time schedule. It shows the duration and order of
avarious construction activitis. It deals with tye aspect of When to do

1.1.2 Secondary source of water

 River
 Stream
 Well
 Lake
 Impounded reservoir
 Infiltration galleries
2 WATER REQUIREMENT

2.1 Crop season

The whole of a year is divided into different seasons based on the time of sow and harvest. Crop
season are different in different parts of our country. The different types of crop season are:
Kharif season
Rabi season
Perennial season
Zaid crop

2.2 Kharif season

The kharif season are sown in the month of june and july and harvested on October and novemeber.
3 CANAL DESIGN CONCEPT

3.1 River training works-objectives

Guide bunds, afflux bunds, approach embankments, groynes, spurs are typical river training
structures. Guide bunds are for restricting the flow path of river water way. Afflux bunds, approach
embankments, groynes, spurs are for controlling river waterway.

4 WATER POWER ENGINEERING

4.1 General Layout Plan of Hydropower Project

Flexibility, superiority in performance, mouldability and monolithicity are the features which lead the
concrete as top in the modern construction technology.

In the beginning empirical approach was used for the design of concrete elements. Later elastic
theory was followed to limit stress in concrete and reinforcement within the elastic range. But limit
state method, semi empirical approach, is proved as the best method of design.

4.2 Intakes
It is a structure situated at the entrance of the canals or tunnels or pipes to draw the required quantity
of water from the river or reservoir and conveyed to the power house. They fulfill the following
functions

It controls the flow of water in to the conveyance system. This is achieved by a gate or a valve.
It allows smooth, easy and turbulence free entry into the conveyance passages by flaring the inlet
mouth as a bell mouth entry.
It strops entering coarse river borne trash matter such as boulders, ice and logs of wood into the
conveyance passage.

throughThe main purpose of the test is to obtain the compressibility properties of a saturated soil for
use in determining the magnitude and rate of settlement of structures.

Loads are applied such that successive load intensity, p, is twice the preceding one. The load
intensities commonly used being 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 tonnes/ft2. Each load is allowed to stand
until compression has practically ceased (no longer than 24 hours). Sandy samples are compressed
relatively short time.

After the application of the greatest load for the test, the soil sample is allowed for expansion to have
the information about swelling nature of the soil, elastic properties and magnitudes of plastic or
permanent deformations.

4.3 Type of Hydropower Projects

Hydroelectric plants are classified commonly by their hydraulic characteristics, that is, with respect to
the water flowing through the turbines that run the generators. Broadly, the following classifications
made are shown in Figure 6.
4.3.1 Run of River (ROR)
These are hydropower plants that utilize the stream flow as it comes, with little or no storage being
provided (Figure6a). Generally, these plants would be feasible only on such streams which have a
minimum dry weather flow of such magnitude which makes it possible to generate electricity
economically and efficiently throughout the year.

Typical features of ROR Power Plants

a. Since the flow would vary throughout the year, ROR without storage schemes would run during
the monsoon flows and would otherwise remain shut during low flows.
b. Low to Medium head operation.
c. The clay layer is laterally confined.
d. Darcy's Law is valid.
e. The compression of the soil layer is due to the change in volume which, in turn, is due to the
expulsion of water from the void spaces.
f. Deformation of soil layer is in the direction of load application.
g. The coefficient of consolidation is constant during the consolidation.

4.3.2 Peaking Run of River (PROR)

Run-of-river plants may also be provided with some storage (Figure6b) to take care of the variation of
flow in the river as for snow-melt rivers, emerging from the glaciers of Himalayas. During off-peak
hours of electricity demand, as in the night, some of the units may be closed and the water conserved
in the storage space, which is again released during peak hours for power generation.

a. Secondary consolidation is not significant.

b. The clay stratum is drained out on one or both surfaces.
c. The clay stratum is deeply buried.
d. The thickness of the clay stratum is thin compared to the loaded areas.
4.4 Pressure - Void Ratio Curves
The curve is the applied pressure with respect to the void ratio at the end of the each increment of
load.

Determination of void ratio

Vs= Volume of the solids in the sample= dry weight, W/ GsYw

We can also write, Vs= Ahs or hs=Vs/A

Void ratio, e=Ah-Ahs/Ahs= h-hs/hs
Where h= height of the sample at each stage which decreases with increment of load

Equilibrium void ratio at the end of any load increment may be determined by the change in volume
void ration method.
Change of Void Ratio Method
5 FOUNDATION ENGINEERING

5.1 Site Investigation and Soil Exploration of Bridge Sites

A site investigation is the field examination of the possible sites of the bridge location and selects the
most suitable location based on the factors: need for a bridge, present and future traffic, economy,
stream characteristics, sub soil condition, safety and aesthetics. The thorough investigation at site will
help a designer to produce a successful final design.

The characteristics of an ideal site for a bridge across a river are

a. Bridge site is selected at the straight reach, narrow section of a river.
b. Steady river flow without serious whirls and cross currents.
c. Rocky or firm banks, non erodible river bed
d. Suitable high banks above high flood level on each side.
e. Firm or inerodible river beds and banks.
f. Absence of expensive river training works.
g. Avoidance of excessive underwater construction.
h. Economical approaches which should not be too high or long or liable to flank attacks of the river
during floods, free of frequent drainage crossings, hills, built up area, sacred places, troublesome
of land acquisition. The approaches should be at proximity to the direct and straight alignment of
the road, without sharp curves.

5.2 Soil Exploration of Bridge Site

The aim of soil exploration is to get information for the correctly deciding the location and type of
foundation. The data required are

a. Nature of soil deposits

i. Depth and thickness of soil strata
j. Location of ground water table
k. Depth of rock bed and
l. Engineering properties of soils and rock
Methods of soil exploration
Borings
Geophysical methods
Test pits and core drilling

5.3 Earth Pressure and Retaining Structures

5.3.1 Plastic equilibrium in soils: Active and Passive States*

A body of soil is said to be in plastic equilibrium if every point of it is in the verge of failure. The stress
condition during the plastic equilibrium can be represented by the Mohr-Column Shear Strength
Equation:

t= C+stanF ………….1.0

5.3.2 lateral earth pressure theory

There are two classical earth pressure theories. They are

Coulomb's earth pressure theory

Rankine's earth pressure theory
Consider a rigid wall, with a plane vertical face, is backfilled with cohesionless soil. If the wall does not
move due to the backfill, the earth pressure on the wall is pressure at rest condition. As shown in the
figure a, suppose if the wall gradually rotates about A away from backfill, the earth pressure on it
gradually reduces and after certain displacement at the top of the wall, the earth pressure becomes
constant. The pressure is minimum possible and termed as active pressure because the weight of the
earth behind the wall is responsible for movement of the wall. If the wall is vertical and smooth the
resultant pressure on the wall is normal to the wall and if rough, the resultant pressure inclines to d to
the horizontal. The angle d is said to be the angle of wall friction. As the wall moves further sufficiently,
the soil behind it tends to rupture about the curve surface ADC. If the surface is assumed as plane,
the analysis shows that the plane makes 450+F/2 with the horizontal.
If the wall is rotated about A towards backfill, the earth pressure increases and becomes constant
after certain movement. The maximum pressure is called as passive earth pressure because the
weight of the backfill opposes the movement of wall. The rupture surface is slightly curve, ADC but
assumed as plane making an angle 450-F/2 with horizontal.
constantthe soil behind it tends to slide along the curve surface ADC and the exerted pressure
gradually decreases till the minimum value. The minimum earth pressure is called as active earth
pressure.
Figure: Development of active and passive earth presure

Lateral earth pressure at rest condition

If the wall is rigid and does not move due to supporting backfill, then the soil is in elastic equilibrium
condition. Consider a soil element E at the depth of Z from the top, the pressures on the element are
Vertical pressure,sv=gz
Horizontal pressure,sh
If the backfill is homogeneous the sv,sh increases linearly with depth.
Hence sh/sv= constant
Or, sh/ gz= constant=Ko, coefficient of earth pressure at rest condition
Therefore sh = Kogz
The total pressure for the soil at rest is P0=1/2 KogH2
5.3.3 Rankine's earth pressure theory
Assumptions of the Rankine's Theory:

The soil mass is semi infinite, homogeneous, dry and cohesionless.

The ground surface is plane either horizontal or inclined.
The back of the wall is vertical and smooth.
The wall yields about the base and thus satisfies the deformation condition of the plastic equilibrium.
Cases:
1. Dry or moist backfill with no surcharge