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Topic Review
Cement Production in Nigeria
Cement is the most common and extensively used adhesive in the construction industry. It is employed on highways, houses, embankments, bridges, commercial establishments, and flyovers. In recent years, the Nigerian cement industry has grown from import dependency to an export-thriving epicentre within Africa. The country possesses the largest cement industry within West Africa, with at least 12 registered companies amounting to a merged cement capacity of 58.9 Mt/yr. Dangote Cement is the largest cement producer in Nigeria and West Africa, manufacturing a combined share of more than 28.5 Mt/yr of cement capacity. Also, LafargeHolcim (through its subsidiary AshakaCem & Lafarge WAPCO) and BUA Group boost 18.9 Mt/yr and 11.5 Mt/yr of integrated cement capacity, respectively.
  • 14.8K
  • 16 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Applications of Fibre Reinforced Polymer
Three FRP shapes are used in Structural Engineering applications: FRP profiles for new construction, FRP rebars and FRP strengthening systems. Applications in bridges, buildings, railway platforms, cooling towers and repair and rehabilitation of existing structures are presented. FRP is a strong and lightweight sustainable material with lower carbon footprint than traditional materials. However, FRPs are not as widely used as expected. FRP use in repair and rehabilitation has seen significant growth, though, over last two decades. The major challenges have been steel-like FRP elements, lack of ductility, almost no legal design guidelines and inadequate knowledge about fire and durability performance. The future of FRPs can be promising if engineers use this material more for net-zero carbon construction, and to effectively deal with climate emergency.
  • 13.0K
  • 28 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Smart Cities
"Smart cities" are a new type of city where stakeholders are jointly responsible for urban management. City Information Management (CIM) is an output tool for smart city planning and management, which assists in achieving the sustainable development of urban infrastructure, and promotes smart cities to achieve the goals of stable global economic development, sustainable environmental development, and improvement of people’s quality of life. Existing research has so far established that blockchain and BIM have great potential to enhance construction project performance.
  • 7.4K
  • 14 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Smart Water Grids
Smart water grids are urban water infrastructure enhanced through a variety of interconnected devices with the ability to collect and share data with both other devices and data centres. Typically this is done through the use of Internet of Things technology. Some of these devices also have the capacity to make decisions, in a centralised and/or decentralised manner, and to perform physical actions on the water infrastructure that lead to optimal operation and control. Smart water grids can, therefore, be understood as an instance of cyber-physical systems. In the case of water distribution management, in addition to classical objectives such as pressure, quality and leakage control; smart water grids also seek energy efficiency and explore water reuse systems.
  • 6.3K
  • 26 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Microbial-Induced Calcite Precipitation
Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is a process that uses naturally occurring bacteria to bind soil particles together through calcium carbonate (CaCO3) precipitation. It is a promising new technology in the area of Civil Engineering with the potential to become a cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and sustainable solution to many problems such as ground improvement, liquefaction remediation, enhancing properties of concrete, and so forth. 
  • 6.1K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Construction 4.0
Construction 4.0 is a variety of interdisciplinary technologies, methodologies and concepts that digitize, automate and integrate the construction process at all stages of the value chain
  • 5.6K
  • 27 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Design of Block Shear Failure
The block shear failure was reported firstly in 1978 for joints with not optimal geometry from an internal forces point of view. The test results proved the potential failure mode of tearing out in the web of the beam. Several studies concerning block shear failure were published in the last twenty years predicting the block shear capacity as a combination of fracture on the tension and shear plane. Block shear rupture is the potential failure mode for gusset plates, fin plates, coped beams, single/double angles and tee connections, where significant tension/shear forces are present. 
  • 5.5K
  • 21 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Natural Hazards in Pakistan
Natural hazards are dynamic and unpredictable events that are a continuous threat to global socio-economic development. Humans’ reactions to these catastrophes are influenced by their proximity to the hazards and their ability to anticipate, resist, cope with, and recover from their consequences. Due to climatic changes, the risk of multiple natural hazards is expected to increase in several regions of Pakistan.
  • 5.3K
  • 08 Feb 2023
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Road Markings and Signs in Road Safety
Due to the dynamic nature and complexity of road traffic, road safety is one of the most demanding social challenges. Therefore, contemporary road safety strategies incorporate a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approaches to address this problem and improve the safety of each individual element, i.e., the human, vehicle, and road. Traffic control devices are an important part of road infrastructure, among which road markings and road signs play a significant role. In general, road markings and signs represent basic means of communication between the road authorities and road users and, as such, provide road users with necessary information about the rules, warnings, obligations, and other information related to the upcoming situations and road alignment. The aim of this entry is to briefly present the main functions and characteristics of road markings and signs, and their role in road safety. In addition, practical issues and future trends and directions regarding road markings and signs are discussed. 
  • 4.7K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Composite Structures
Common types of engineering materials include metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites. Among these, composite materials are often a better alternative for traditional materials, such as metals, ceramics, and polymers due to their light weight, corrosion resistance, high strength and stiffness, ability to withstand high temperatures, and simple manufacturing process. Composite structures are used in a range of different industries from aerospace, marine, aviation, transport, and sports/leisure to civil engineering. For example, advanced composite materials have been used in different structures regarding the above industries, such as rotor blades, aircraft main body, and wing skins.
  • 4.6K
  • 28 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Architectural Perspective of Ant Nests
Ants are excellent architects in the animal kingdom. The activities of “design”, “material selection” and “construction” of their nests are full of magical secrets. After hundreds of millions of years of survival of the fittest, the nests of each species of ant are generally characterised by reasonable structure and good mechanical performance, and also reflect the law of “obtaining large and solid living space with the least amount of material”. The complex underground ant colony nest system is large in scale, stable in internal environmental characteristics, has excellent ventilation, appropriate humidity and temperature, and makes use of natural barriers, such as thin grasses, trees, sand and stone, around entrances and exits, as well as having good physical structure, resistant to pressure, water, heat and moisture. Ants have very strict requirements on the size, weight, lustre and colour of the building materials for the nest, such as soil particles. As social insects, ants are responsible for the site selection and materials selection of their nests, the design of the whole nest, organising and coordinating the grand construction process, and managing the nest. 
  • 4.4K
  • 26 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Role of Evapotranspiration in Agricultural Water Management
Evapotranspiration (ET) is a major component of the water cycle and agricultural water balance. Estimation of water consumption over agricultural areas is important for agricultural water resources planning, management, and regulation. It leads to the establishment of a sustainable water balance, mitigates the impacts of water scarcity, as well as prevents the overusing and wasting of precious water resources. As evapotranspiration is a major consumptive use of irrigation water and rainwater on agricultural lands, improvements of water use efficiency and sustainable water management in agriculture must be based on the accurate estimation of ET. 
  • 4.3K
  • 12 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Modular Construction
A modular construction is an assembly of standardized-dimension building elements such as wall panel, slab, beam or also an assembly of container-type units called “modules” or else “prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC)” which are prefabricated in factory and afterwards transported and assembled on-site. The naming of “container house” is given to transportable modules that are completely finished in the factory and ready to be inhabited; for smaller units, eventually with different shapes, the nomenclature of “living pod” or “capsule” is also found in literature. Modular buildings are always prefabricated buildings, but the reverse is not necessarily true. The degree of prefabrication and assembly technique mainly varies depending on the life span of the building (temporary or permanent), the desired space layout and the technical equipment to install (heating, electricity, sewer, plumbing, etc.).
  • 4.3K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Vulnerability of Buildings
Vulnerability is defined for buildings as the degree of loss resulting from a hazard at a certain severity level and depends on the reduction in resistance and the level of decay in the structures as a result of constant exposure to environmental factors (such as seismic actions). 
  • 4.2K
  • 23 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Direct and Indirect Solar Gain Systems
The energy crisis, the risk of interruptions or irregular supplies of conventional energy carriers, and the need to protect the environment stimulate the search for new solutions to improve the heat balance of buildings with the use of solar energy. Based on the criterion of the storage, distribution, and discharge time of stored heat, passive solar gain solutions can be divided into direct and indirect solar gain systems.
  • 4.1K
  • 15 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Cost–Benefit Analysis for Road Infrastructure Projects
Cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is considered an effective evaluation method for fostering optimal decision-making and ranking of road infrastructures over decades. Eight distinct modelling categories used for CBA implementation were determined, each encompassing three different modelling approaches for capturing the data risk assessment (deterministic or probabilistic), CBA’s parameters interactive behavior (static or dynamic) and the considered economies (microeconomic or macroeconomic). In-depth content analysis led to the interpretation of the current status of extant models and the identification of three main knowledge gaps: the absence of the CBA’s inputs updating into a probabilistic environment, the deficiency of a dynamic interdependent framework and the necessity of homogenous cost datasets for road projects. Future research directions and a conceptual framework for modelling CBA into a microeconomic, probabilistic and dynamic environment are proposed providing decision-makers with new avenues for more reliable CBA modelling.
  • 4.1K
  • 29 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Cup Lump Natural Rubber
Cup lump is obtained when fresh latex is extracted by tapping into a long cut made in a rubber tree and letting the drips pour into a plastic cup.
  • 3.9K
  • 05 May 2023
Topic Review
Floating Wind Turbines
Globally, the wind resource in deep water (depths > 60 m) is very abundant. Due to the abundance of potential at these depths, the wind turbines will need the design of a floating platform because the wind turbines that are currently in operation are mostly fixed at the bottom and are dependent upon conventional concrete with a gravity base that is not feasible at these depths. A balance among the two varying principles (i.e., the requirement for a stable foundation for the wind turbine’s control and operation and the nature of the substructure being innate, to respond to environmental forces) is required for the design of the floating platform for wind energy. The absence of rigid foundations results in an additional six degrees of freedom (DOFs) for the platform of floating turbines; three translational (surge X, sway Y, and heave Z) and three rotational (roll RotX, pitch RotY, and yaw RotZ). For the platforms of onshore wind turbines and bottom-mounted offshore wind turbines, the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) can be modeled with six degrees of freedom; three translational (horizontal forces in X and Y and vertical force in Z) and three rotational (rocking moments in X and Y and a torsional moment in Z) respectively.
  • 3.8K
  • 11 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Traffic Smoothness for ITS
The smooth traffic flow, which refers to the stochastically stabilized flow (ie. flow without disruption, that prevents the acceptance of a specific probability distribution of the headways), in the queuing model with moving buffer, can be described using the maximum density  referring to the smooth flow.
  • 3.6K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Groundwater Withdrawal-Induced Land Subsidence
Land subsidence is probably one of the most evident environmental effects of groundwater pumping. Globally, freshwater demand is the leading cause of this phenomenon. Land subsidence induced by aquifer system drainage can reach total values of up to 14.5 m. The spatial extension of this phenomenon is usually extensive and is often difficult to define clearly. Aquifer compaction contributes to many socio-economic effects and high infrastructure-related damage costs. Currently, many methods are used to analyze aquifer compaction. These include the fundamental relationship between groundwater head and groundwater flow direction, water pressure and aquifer matrix compressibility. Such solutions enable satisfactory modelling results. However, further research is needed to allow more efficient modelling of aquifer compaction. Recently, satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) has contributed to significant progress in monitoring and determining the spatio-temporal land subsidence distributions worldwide. Therefore, implementation of this approach can pave the way to the development of more efficient aquifer compaction models. This entry presents a comprehensive review of models used to predict land surface displacements caused by rock mass drainage, as well as (2) recent advances and (3) a summary of InSAR implementation over recent years to support the aquifer compaction modelling process. Therefore, the study presented would be of benefit to readers who are interested in the topic of interaction between the human population and the hydrogeological system in different regions. The research presented allows readers to better understand the factors, developments and effects of groundwater drainage and thus facilitate large - scale risk assessment and preventive planning.
  • 3.5K
  • 27 Oct 2020
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