Ensuring water security by utilizing roof-harvested rainwater and lake water treated with a low-cost integrated adsorption-filtration system

Drinking water is supplied through a centralized water supply system and may not be accessed by communities in rural areas of Malaysia.This study investigated the performance of a low-cost, self-prepared combined activated carbon and sand filtration(CACSF) system for roofharvested rainwater and lake water for potable use. Activated carbon was self-prepared using locally sourced coconut shell and was activated using commonly available salt rather than a high-tech procedure that requires a chemical reagent. The filtration chamber was comprised of local,readily available sand. The experiments were conducted with varying antecedent dry intervals(ADIs) of up to 15 d and lake water with varying initial chemical oxygen demand(COD) concentration. The CACSF system managed to produce effluents complying with the drinking water standards for the parameters p H, dissolved oxygen(DO), biochemical oxygen demand(BOD5), COD, total suspended solids(TSS), and ammonia nitrogen(NH_3-N). The CACSF system successfully decreased the population of Escherichia coli(E. coli) in the influents to less than 30 CFU/m L. Samples with a higher population of E. coli(that is, greater than 30 CFU/m L) did not show 100% removal. The system also showed high potential as an alternative for treated drinking water for roof-harvested rainwater and class II lake water.

Modified particle swarm optimization for optimum design of spread footing and retaining wall

This paper deals with the economically optimized design and sensitivity of two of the most widely used systems in geotechnical engineering: spread footing and retaining wall. Several recent advanced optimization methods have been developed, but very few of these methods have been applied to geotechnical problems. The current research develops a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) approach to obtain the optimum design of spread footing and retaining wall. The algorithm handles the problem-specific constraints using a penalty function approach. The optimization procedure controls all geotechnical and structural design constraints while reducing the overall cost of the structures. To verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algorithm, three case studies of spread footing and retaining wall are illustrated. Comparison of the results of the present method, standard PSO, and other selected methods employed in previous studies shows the reliability and accuracy of the algorithm. Moreover, the parametric performance is investigated in order to examine the effect of relevant variables on the optimum design of the footing and the retaining structure utilizing the proposed method.