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In this paper, a new Continuous Ant Colony Optimization (CACO) algorithm is proposed for optimal reservoir operation. The paper presents a new method of determining and setting a complete set of control parameters for any given problem, saving the user from a tedious trial and error based approach to determine them. The paper also proposes an elitist strategy for CACO algorithm where best solution of each iteration is directly copied to the next iteration to improve performance of the method. The performance of the CACO algorithm is demonstrated against some benchmark test functions and compared with some other popular heuristic algorithms. The results indicated good performance of the proposed method for global minimization of continuous test functions. The method was also used to find the optimal operation of the Dez reservoir in southern Iran, a problem in the reservoir operation discipline. A normalized squared deviation of the releases from the required demands is considered as the fitness function and the results are presented and compared with the solution obtained by Non Linear Programming (NLP) and Discrete Ant Colony Optimization (DACO) models. It is observed that the results obtained from CACO algorithm are superior to those obtained from NLP and DACO models.

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Delay is one of the principal measures of performance used to determine the Level of Service (LOS) at signalized intersections and several methods have been widely used to estimate vehicular delay. Very few studies only have been carried out to estimate delay at signalized intersections under mixed traffic conditions prevailing in developing countries like India. In the present study, various problems associated with delay estimation under mixed traffic conditions in a developing country (India) and the methods to over come them were discussed and an attempt was made to improve the accuracy estimating the same. Five isolated signalized intersections from a fast developing industrial city located in TamilNadu, India were chosen for the study. Site specific PCU values were developed considering the static and dynamic characteristics of vehicles. Saturation flow was also directly measured in the field for the prevailing roadway, traffic and signalized conditions and expressed in PCU/h. Control delay was also measured following HCM 2000 guidelines. Later, this was compared with that estimated from the theoretical delay model. Even after taking several measures, good correlation between observed and predicted delay could not be obtained. Therefore, in the present scenario field measured control delay was taken into account to define LOS. A new criteria for Indian cities recently published in the literature was used to assign LOS grades of study intersections and found to be better reflecting the field conditions.

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Pre-cast concrete products are sometimes manufactured in 2 cycles per day with one mold for the purpose of productivity improvement and so forth. In such a case, from the point of view of securing early-time strength which is required at the time of demolding, it is necessary to increase steam curing temperature and then the likelihood of temperature cracking becomes a concern. Moreover, self-compacting concrete (hereinafter refer as “SCC”) is increasingly used to which ground granulated blast-furnace slag is added, in consideration of environment surrounding a plant or operation environment. One choice then is to admix expansive agent in order to prevent cracking due to autogenous shrinkage. However, there is some possibility that high temperature curing required for 2 cycles per day production likely enhances cracking due to expansive agent admixing. In this study, the cause of cracking of large-sized pre-cast concrete products with high amount of expansive agent, in comparison of 1 cycle per day and 2 cycles per day productions was investigated.

As the result, it was confirmed that high temperature steam curing and early demolding of 2 cycles per day production promote thermal stress cracking in contrast to 1 cycle per day production, and at the same time, un expected cracking along main reinforcement is caused by excess expansion due to inappropriate curing of expansive agent.

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This paper outlines the effects of curing conditions on the strength and hydration products of lime activated slag cement. The slag cement was prepared by activating the ground granulated blast furnace slag with lime and plaster of Paris. The curing of mortar specimens was done at temperatures of 27⁰, 45⁰,60⁰,75⁰C and the compressive strength of specimens were determined after curing periods of 3,7, 28, 56 and 90days. The curing temperature is found to influence both the early and later age strengths. For the present test conditions the highest 90days compressive strength was found to be 47.63MPa for the specimen cured at temperature of 60⁰C. Further, the developed strength in mortar specimens were correlated with the hydration products and microstructure using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope results. Generalized reduced gradient technique is adopted to find the optimum curing temperature for the given raw material composition and this is found to vary marginally on curing period. 

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The present study aims at the divination of the speed ranges of Level of Service (LOS) categories of urban traffic facilities. Free flow speed (FFS), congested travel speed, geometric and surrounding environmental conditions are considered to define LOS criteria for urban street in Indian context. Cluster analysis is found to be a powerful tool to delineate LOS criteria. Hard Competitive Learning (hardcl) method is used to classify large number of speed data obtained using Global Positioning System (GPS). Six cluster validation parameters are used to classify the urban streets as well as the LOS categories. It can be confirmed from the above research work that the LOS categories for different urban street class are lower than that of the values proposed by HCM 2000 and the average travel speed of LOS categories expressed in percentage of the free flow speed are lower than the values mentioned in HCM 2010.

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The gap acceptance behavior of drivers at U-turn median openings is studied by considering the critical gap which cannot be obtained directly by field measurements. A thorough investigation on critical gap estimation is carried out by collecting the data sets from median openings at 4-lane, 6-lane and 8-lane roads of Hyderabad City, India. Wide difference (10% - 42%) among the critical gap values estimated by the application of existing methods shows the limitation to consider for the mixed traffic situations. In order to address this issue, recently developed method Influence Area For Gap Acceptance (INAFOGA) which is based on clearing behavior of drivers at unsignalised intersections is modified and applied considering the merging behavior of U-turn vehicles at median openings and named as ‘Modified INAFOGA’ method. Modified INAFOGA method is compared with probability equilibrium method through paired-sample hypothesis (t-test) and result revealed that difference in mean values 0.009 signifies that both methods are comparable. Difference in critical gap values obtained from the box plots and radar charts indicates that Probability equilibrium method is not suitable to address the behavior of U-turn vehicles at median openings under mixed traffic conditions. These observations coupled with higher critical gap values validate the fact that ‘modified INAFOGA’ method is indeed appropriate under mixed traffic conditions.