Solar Photochemical Pre-Treatment for Sulphurous Ground Water Purification Process

The sulfurous water deposit exploitation in volcanic, swamp, or wetland regions, represents an alternative option for potable water supply in cities and communities around the world. However, before its consumption, it must be treated by the application of physicochemical or biological methods with the ability to separate high contents in sulfates, hydrogen sulphite and sulphides which have laxative, allergic and toxic properties in humans. Conventional methods require the supply of chemical compounds or the adequate control of different parameters such as pH, temperature, etc., and the constant maintenance within their reactors. For these reasons, the systems could have elevated operating costs and require additional steps to enable the treatment of its separated products and the final disposal of its residual waste generated. In this research, compound parabolic collectors are implemented for the use of solar energy radiation, UV-B type, in Solar Advanced Oxidation Processes in H2O2/O3/UVsolar homogeneous phase. Its application during the pre-treatment of four sulfur water wells from the region of Puebla, Mexico, demonstrated its ability to transform their sulfur compounds in sulfates of easy removal by a later stage of reverse osmosis, in an approximately 15 min treatment time process.

Stress and deformation due to embankment widening with different treatment techniques

A two-dimensional(2-D) finite element(FE) model was developed to analyze the deformation and stress of embankment on soft ground due to widening with different treatment techniques.It is found that the embankment widening induces transverse gradient change due to differential settlements and horizontal outward movements at the shoulder of the existing embankment.Embankment widening also increases the shear stress along the slope of the existing embankment,especially at the foot of slope.The failure potential due to embankment widening may increase with the increase of widening width when the widening width is smaller than 8.5 m,but may decrease with the increase of widening width as the widening width is greater than 8.5 m.The effectiveness of four ground and embankment treatment techniques,including geosynthetic reinforcement,light-weight embankment,deep mixed columns,and separating wall were compared.The results indicate that these treatments reduce the differential settlements and improve the stability.The light-weight embankment has the most effectiveness among four treatments.By using the fly-ash backfill material in widening,the transverse gradient change decreases from 0.5%-1.3% to 0.26%-0.8% and the maximum horizontal displacement decreases from 2.76 cm to 1.44 cm.

Erective Sea Embankment with PCC Piles

The sea embankment is a critical civil works in marine and coastal engineering. In this study, an innovative technique is proposed for constructing erective sea embankments. In the construction of sea embankments, this technique integrates PCC pile installation, PVDs drainage systems, and geotextile reinforcements, resulting in sea embankments with PCC piles. In the application of a sea embankment with PCC piles, PCC piles are employed as the retaining structures; the soft sea ground inside PCC piles is drained and improved by PVDs and vacuum-surcharge combined preloading; geotextile-reinforced backfills lying over the improved soft ground form the embankment body. Brief descriptions of the fundamentals, design and construction of the sea embankment with PCC piles are presented. A case study on the stability of sea embankment with PCC piles is presented as well.

Experimental study on the dynamic modulus of compacted loess under bidirectional dynamic load

The dynamic characteristics of compacted loess are of great significance to the seismic construction of the Loess Plateau area in Northwest China,where earthquakes frequently occur.To study the change in the dynamic modulus of the foundation soil under the combined action of vertical and horizontal earthquakes,a hollow cy-lindrical torsion shear instrument capable of vibrating in four directions was used to perform two-way coupling of compression and torsion of Xi'an compacted loess under different dry density and deviator stress ratios.The results show that increasing the dry density can improve the initial dynamic compression modulus and initial dynamic shear modulus of compacted loess.With an increase in the deviator stress ratio,the initial dynamic compression modulus increases,to a certain extent,but the initial dynamic shear modulus decreases slightly.The dynamic modulus gradually decreases with the development of dynamic strain and tends to be stable,and the dynamic modulus that reaches the same strain increases with an increasing dry density.At the initial stage of dynamic loading,the attenuation of the dynamic shear modulus with the strain development is faster than that of the dynamic compression modulus.Compared with previous research results,it is determined that the dynamic modulus of loess under bidirectional dynamic loading is lower and the attenuation rate is faster than that under single-direction dynamic loading.The deviator stress ratio has a more obvious effect on the dynamic compression modulus.The increase in the deviator stress ratio can increase the dynamic compression modulus,to a certain extent.However,the deviator stress ratio has almost no effect on the dynamic shear modulus,and can therefore be ignored.

Development of Subgrade Technical System for High-speed Railway

There are two phases in the development of China's high-speed railway after the1990s:the research and experiment phase during the Eighth and the Tenth Five-Year Plan periods;the construction and operation phase during the Eleventh and the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan periods.This paper regards the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway as the corner stone in the development of high-speed railway subgrade system,and proposes suggestions and solutions to the problems which may reduce the service life of subgrade.These solutions and methods can be referred to in future railway projects.

Control of settlement and volume loss induced by tunneling under recently reclaimed land

The proposed Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link(TM-CLKL)project comprises a 9-km-long dual two-lane carriageway between Tuen Mun and North Lantau,Hong Kong.Construction of the two tunnels at the Northern Landfall Fall was carried out by two TBMs:the northbound is referred to as ML03 and has an excavated diameter of 17.63 m,and the southbound is referred to as ML02 and has an excavated diameter of 14.00 m.The use of TBMs minimized the amount of dredging and removal of soft marine deposits,resulting in less impact to the environment within and near the work site of the project.Ground treatment in the form of deep vibro-compaction was carried out at the sand fill and band drains installed in the marine deposit.A surcharge was also added above the final formation level to limit the residual settlement and differential settlement of the reclaimed land to less than 500 mm and 1 in 300,respectively,for a design life of 50 years.Finite element analyses were performed to predict the settlement trough under different confinement pressures along the tunnel alignment.Extensive monitoring of the ground movement was carried out during the driving of the two TBMs to ensure that the design confinement pressure of the slurry would not cause excessive settlement,heave,or blow out at the shallow tunnel sections or different facilities along the tunnel alignment.The monitoring data was then used to back-calculate the percentage of volume loss,which is a key index describing the behavior of the ground during excavation.The monitoring data showed that the measured settlement and back-calculated volume loss were much lower than the predicted values.