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UKIERI Congress:
Concrete for 21st Century Construction
Internationally renowned
for its research excellence, the
Concrete Technology Unit of the
University of Dundee, UK, together
with eight Indian Higher Education
Institutions, is organising this
Congress titled 'Concrete for 21st
Century Construction' during 8-10
March 2011, at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Delhi.
The Indian Institutions
involved with organising of the
Congress are: Birla Institute of
Technology and Science, Pilani;
Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College,
Ludhiana; Indian Institute of Technology,
Delhi; National Institute of Technology
at Jaipur, Jalandhar, Surat and
Surathkal and SRM University, Chennai.
These institutions are all partners
in the collaborative research programme
carried out in both the countries
under the UKIERI Scheme (UK-India
Education and Research Initiative)
funded by the two governments. The
group has now been working together
for nearly 2 ½ years, dealing
with issues relating to sustainability
and high performance in concrete
infrastructures.
The Congress will
address new developments in concrete
and construction and their role
in responding, within the framework
of appropriate, innovative and sustainable
use of materials, to the rapid growth
in the national infrastructure demands.
This will be a three day Congress,
as outlined below:
- Day 1: Opening Ceremonies
- Day 2: Concrete for High Performance
Sustainable Infrastructure
- Day 3: New Developments in Concrete
Construction
The Congress should appeal to all
sections of concrete construction
industry (architects, design engineers,
contractors, manufacturers and suppliers
of concrete materials); various
government departments and academics
engaged in concrete and structural
engineering research.
The full programme of the Congress
is presently being finalised and
will be made available shortly through
the Indian Concrete Journal and
the websites of the eight institutions
involved in organising this Congress
and others.
For more details, please contact:
Dr. Moray D. Newlands
Congress Secretary
Concrete Technology Unit
University of Dundee,
Dundee, Scotland, UK
Email: m.d.z.newlands@dundee.ac.uk
Conferences from CI-Premier
Our World in Concrete &
Structures
The 35th Conference on 'Our World
in Concrete & Structures' will
be held during 26-27 August 2010
at Singapore. The theme is 'Challenge
of the low carbon age'.
From the view point of concrete
and structures, the challenge of
the low carbon age serves as a catalyst
to the sharing of strategies and
best practices and spur further
innovations in materials technology,
design, construction and management
to achieve a built environment that
will accommodate our modern and
demanding lifestyles whilst ensuring
that the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs is not compromised.
Concrete is the construction material
of choice around the world and looks
set maintain its pole position in
the low carbon age. No one can say
for sure what the future will bring
but we know that change will come.
Speculations by industry leaders
on what the future will bring seem
to indicate that the next 50 years
of change will be equivalent to
the changes seen in the last 400
years! Some of the changes include
streamlining of processes in concrete
production, delivery and quality
management, a quantum jump in skill
requirements of concrete practitioners
across the whole value chain, doubling
or tripling service life of built
infrastructure and components, use
of a new generation of construction
materials and the concrete industry
meeting market demands while using
environmentally responsible practices
which minimize emissions, waste
and consumption of raw materials
and energy.
Original papers of relevance to
this theme are invited from academicians,
professors, researchers, professional
engineers, architects and consultants
from private and public sectors;
builders and contractors, developers,
suppliers, material scientists and
technologists; industrialists and
manufacturers and all those interested
and involved in concrete.
The topics of the event are: Concrete
design & analysis for buildings
& structures, Concrete mix design,
quality control and production,
Concrete technology, ready-mix,
SCC, RCC, Concrete plant, equipment
and machinery, Concrete repairs
and rehabilitation, Concrete materials,
composites, Concrete construction
and safety, Concrete application
in roads, bridges, tall buildings,
tunnels, underwater, underground,
etc. and Concrete prefabrication,
prestressed and precast concrete
(in a separate symposium on PPibsP
- Precast concrete and precasting,
Prestressed concrete & Prestressing,
Building Systems (Industrialised,
integrated and intelligent), Prefabrication
(steel and concrete and others).
Noteworthy Developments in PPibsP
The 5th International Symposium
on 'Noteworthy Developments in PPibsP'
will be held during August 27, 2010.
This is a joint presentation of
the Prestressed & Precast Concrete
Society and the CI-Premier Conference
Organisation incorporating topics
of precast concrete and precasting,
prestressed concrete & prestressing,
building systems (industrialised,
integrated and intelligent), prefabrication
(steel and concrete and others)
and celebrating the 25th Anniversary
of "Prestressed & Precast
Concrete Society of Singapore"
This Conference is a back to back
event with The 35th Conference on
'Our world in concrete & structures'
on 26-27 August 2010 at the same
venue.
The topics of the event includes
research in prestressing, precasting,
prefabrication technologies, building
systems, eg. intelligent, integrated
and industrialized systems advances,
planning, design and analysis, applications
areas, materials, recycle, concrete,
composites, considerations in seismic,
stability, jointing and water proofing
conditions, repair and strengthening
techniques, construction methods
and techniques, special methods,
production processes and techniques,
quality, erection techniques, transportation
and storage facilities, equipment
and machinery, architectural concepts.
Special sessions in sustainable
construction, repair and strengthening,
inspection, inspection, rehabilitation
and testing, health monitoring systems
For more details, please contact:
The Conference Director
CI-PREMIER PTE LTD
150 Orchard Road #07-14, Orchard
Plaza,
Singapore 238841
Tel: +65 67332922
Fax: +65 62353530
E-mail: ci-p@cipremier.com
In 3 years, commercial buildings
must go green
The PM's council on climate change
has cleared the Urban Habitat Mission
under the National Action Plan on
Climate Change (NAPCC), which will
now make the energy-saving building
codes mandatory in three years for
new commercial buildings. The Urban
Habitat Mission, one of the eight
under the NAPCC, is the penultimate
one to be cleared by the PM's council
and is intended to bring in several
changes in the way cities are planned.
While the energy-saving building
codes are already in place, they
have not been implemented as they
remain voluntary. The mission will
set up demonstration projects across
the country and provide the funds
to push states to alter building
byelaws and other regulations to
move towards greener habitats.
While there was a consensus on
most of the issues that came up
before the council, which has representatives
from the government, experts, corporate
honchos on board, the group headed
by the PM saw a debate on the use
of diesel for private transport.
Sources said interested corporate
groups had written in suggesting
that diesel should continue to be
used for private vehicles whereas
some others argued that subsidized
diesel was meant for public transport
and commuting and not to subsidize
private commuting. While an attempt
was made to remove mention of the
diesel issue from the habitat mission
document, with some council members
insisting that the mandate not be
diluted, the mention as a policy
reference will remain.
The eight missions, along with
the low carbon growth plan, are
intended to reduce India's greenhouse
gas emission intensity per unit
GDP by 2020 by 20-25%. The reduction
is to be achieved from the 2005
levels. The implementation of the
energy saving code for commercial
buildings is seen as one of the
low hanging fruits that the government
can implement at minimal cost to
the economy. At present, about only
700 buildings have implemented the
code but the Centre will now mandate
that the JNNURM funds for urban
development be made conditional
on the changes in the byelaws facilitating
the energy codes.
- The Times of India 20.06.2010
110-foot concrete bridge withstands
8.0 earthquake simulation
After a succession of eight separate
earthquake simulations, a 110-foot
long, 200-ton concrete bridge model
at the University of Nevada, Reno
withstood a powerful jolting, three
times the acceleration of the disastrous
1994 magnitude 6.9 Northridge, Calif.
earthquake, and survived in good
condition.
"This is very satisfying to
see how well the design and components
worked," Saiid Saiidi, principal
investigator for the project and
University of Nevada civil engineering
professor said after the final test
on this bridge Tuesday afternoon.
"We estimated bridge failure
at 8 inches of deflection, which
is a lot, but we had 10 inches of
deflection in the support columns
and the bridge remained standing
and usable, even with considerable
internal stresses."
The 200-ton, four-span bridge was
built over several months atop the
14-foot square shake tables at the
world-renowned University of Nevada,
Reno large-structures lab. The innovative
bridge was hit with nine increasingly
more powerful earthquakes over several
days, and survived, giving researchers
reams of data collected from sensors
through 350 channels.
The bridge model is shaken with
bidirectional forces to realistically
simulate an earthquake. The researchers
mimic the Northridge earthquake
using recorded data of the actual
earthquake. Computer programs direct
the movements of the three large
hydraulically-controlled shake tables
in the University's world-renowned,
large-scale structures laboratory.
"We know the bridge would
have survived that quake in good
condition and still be usable,"
Saiidi said.
The University of Nevada research
team is experimenting with and testing
a number of materials and innovations
to potentially revolutionize seismic
design of future bridges to help
protect lives, prevent damage and
avoid bridge closure even when there
is a strong earthquake.
"We anticipate these designs
and components would be used in
future bridge and overpass construction,"
Saiidi said. The11-foot-high, four-span
concrete bridge model was the third
experiment in a series of these
tests using innovative composite
materials and construction to give
superior seismic performance for
bridges and highway overpasses.
"What is extraordinary about
the construction techniques tested
with this bridge is the use of glass
and carbon fibers to support the
bridge, precast columns, segmental
columns and special steel pipe-pin
connections in a high seismic setting,"
Saiidi said.
The test was attended by about
50 engineers and industry representatives,
including Caltrans (California Department
of Transportation, USA) chief of
earthquake engineering and several
senior bridge engineers from Caltrans
and NDOT (Nevada Department of Transportation,
USA). About 100 viewers from around
the country observed the test live
via the Web.
The experiment is funded by a $2
million grant from the National
Science Foundation. It is part of
a larger multi-university project
within the George E. Brown Jr. Network
for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
(NEES) research program. The Large-Scale
Structures Laboratory is a member
of NEES, established by the National
Science Foundation in 2004. As a
NEES Equipment Site, the laboratory
is equipped with four, large-scale,
high-performance shake tables; the
only laboratory in the world of
its kind.
Nevada's land-grant university
founded in 1874, the University
of Nevada, Reno has an enrollment
of nearly 17,000 students. The University
is home to one the country's largest
study-abroad programs and the state's
medical school, and offers outreach
and education programs in all Nevada
counties. For more information,
visit www.unr.edu.
- University of Nevada, Reno,
USA
Buildcon + Intexpo
The 3rd Annual Buildcon + Intexpo
will be held during 3-5, September,
2010 at Kala Academy, Panaji, Goa.
The exhibitors profiles will be
from various industries like Construction,
Infrastructure, Building, Stones,
Interior-Exterior, Material Handling
& Related Materials / Equipment
Exhibition
For more details, please contact:
Ln. Joseph Dias, MA (Eco)
Ex-Special Executive Magistrate
/
SEO, Government of Maharashtra
Trinity's Corp
75, Vakola Village, Off St. Anthony's
Street,
Santacruz East, Mumbai 400055
Tel +91-9769555657
Email: trinity.cmd@gmail.com
cecilc@vsnl.net
ICI - ACECON 2010
The Indian Concrete Institute in
association with the Indian Institute
of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai
is organising ICI Asian Conference
on Ecstacy in Concrete 2010 during
December 6-8, 2010 at IIT Madras,
Chennai.
The event is targetted at:
- Professional engineers, architects
& interior designers, concrete
technologies, technocrats, academicians,
research scholar, consultants,
planners, infrastructural professionals
& key senior government officials,
students from engineering &
technical institutes
- Delegates from construction
companies,
- Suppliers of aggregates, reinforcement
& admixtures, building contractors
& construction material suppliers
& distributors,
- Investors, promoters and real
estate developers,
- Project management consultants,
building materials & construction
machinery traders.
For more details, please contact:
Prof. Dr. Ravindra Gettu,
Organising Secretary 'ICI-ACEON
2010'
Dept of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Madras,
Chennai 600 036
Tel: 91-44-22574266
Fax: 91-44-22574252
Email: gettu@ici-acecon2010.com
Web: www.ici-acecon2010.com
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