Pier scour in coarse bed and cohesive materials Research Paper

Pier scour in coarse bed and cohesive materials - Research Paper Example This results to approximately 60 percent of all bridge failures. The societal repercussions that are associated with failures and the costs that are linked to repair are amplified in Alaska, alternate routes of ground transportation between several cities are not in existence. Bridge culvert damages cost a lot to the economy, for example, in 2002 the damage in Kenai Peninsula was estimated at about 19 million dollars. This led to bridge site examination for scour. This paper therefore seeks to discuss the background of scour, its description, the pier scour, and its equation. Scour Scour is a hole that remains behind when sand and rocks, sediments are washed away from the river bottom. Even though scour often occur at any particular time, the scour action is strong especially during flood season. This is because swiftly flowing water has much energy than slowly flowing calm water to lift and wash away sediments from the river bottom. Scour is of a great concern to bridges. This is be cause if rocks or sediment on which bridge is supported or rest is scoured by the river, it is most probably that the bridge could be very unsafe for travel purposes. For example, in 1987 when the Interstate Highway bridge over Schoharie Creek in the state of New York collapsed following a flood, the Federal Highway Administration demanded that each state to specify bridges on the highway over water that are likely to experience problems of scour and to have the bridges with severe scour identified. This knowledge of bridge sites in which there are potential scour problems will enable the States to improve and monitor the bridge conditions ahead of time before they pose danger to travelers. Types of scour There are three main types of scour that affect bridges. The following are the major types of scour that may pose danger to highway bridges over water: Local scour: this occurs when sediments are swept away from around bridge piers and/ or abutments. Piers in this particular case a re the pillars that support bridges, while abutments are the ones supporting the end of the bridge. Flowing water past abutment or pier may scoop holes out in the sediment resulting into scour holes. Contraction scour: this type of scour occurs the sediments are swept away from the sides and bottom of the river. Contraction scour is majorly caused by an increased speed in water flow as it flows through an opening of a bridge which is narrower than the natural channel of the river. Degradation scour: this is a general removal of sand and rocks, sediments from the bottom of the river by the flow of the river. This is often a natural process of sediment removal that lowers the bottom of the river resultantly. In most cases, the process removes large quantities of sediment with time. Pier scour Piers scour is the removal of sediments around the pier. This occurs when rocks and sand in which the bridge rests are removed by flowing water. This is very dangerous to travelers and may cause high magnitude accidents. Adequate definition of potential pier scour at piers is very essential to a proper construction, design, and maintenance of bridges. Designing cost effective and safe bridge depends on accurate estimate of the depth of scour. Thus, underestimating the depth of the scour can place both human life and structures at risk. On the other hand, consistent

Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Poetry - Essay Example This includes the season which is just as night starts in autumn, which is when the season of death, winter, starts. The short lines also make it seem as if there is not much left to waiting. The longest line is the first one, but its broken by the hard ‘b’ sounds. The other lines are very short, only three syllables each, and the last line is only two words. This makes it look like it’s coming to an end. 3(a) I think the meaning of the poem is that death waits for us all. A bird that usually symbolizes death is seen on a bare branch at the end of the living seasons and at the end of the day. I think this is how most people would interpret the poem. 3(b) The meaning of this poem is brought out through the poet’s use of literary devices such as alliteration, imagery and meter. Alliteration conveys the idea that something is about to stop and something else is about to happen. In the first line, the alliteration works on the repeated sound of the letter ‘b’ as in â€Å"bare branch.† This sound makes us come to a hard stop at the beginning of each word and makes us think of endings. This is reinforced by the imagery of the bare branch itself, which indicates life has stopped because all the leaves are gone. It is also reinforced by the meter of the poem because the line is so short. Alliteration is used in the second line to indicate that motion is about to start again with its rolling ‘r’ sounds as in â€Å"rook roosts.† Although the imagery includes a small bird finding a place to rest for the night, it also introduces a living animal into the scene which introduces motion, even if it is just the motion of breathing. This works with the meter to suggest the type of motion to be expected. The line is a full word and a syllable shorter than the first line, suggesting things slowing down. The bird roosts, which is to say that he is doing something. The bird is beginning to

Sociolinguistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sociolinguistics - Essay Example Lower geographical distances and large population sizes often results in increased social contact between two locations and the chance that the respective dialects are influenced by each other (Heeringa, 2006). Therefore by establishing language variation theories more information can be gathered about the speakers, their representations, about the structures of the society and interactions (Berruto, 2004). The scientific study of language is called linguistics. Formal models are often constructed which allow us to understand the functioning of various modules of the linguistic grammar function1. These modules include study of variations in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. In fact there's a school of thought which says that, "In the absence of variation, languages would no longer be the versatile, flexible semiotic instruments they are, malleably following the flow of time and history. This capacity for variation would appear to be co-essential to natural langu ages" (Berruto, 2004). Variations in language can be; Dialect: This is a somewhat complex concept. Dialect is considered a collection of attributes (phonetic, phonological, syntactic, morphological, semantic) that make one group of speakers noticeably different from another group of speakers of the same language Therefore while on the one hand there are variations in the languages li

Global Warming is real Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global Warming is real - Research Paper Example The resulting rise in sea level is causing tsunamis to occur and has also endangered the survival of many animal species on earth. The question that has, in recent years, attracted the attention of scientists all over the world is, if the global warming is on a rise, and if so, to what extent are humans responsible for that? As fossil fuels burn, the carbon they contain gets converted into a greenhouse gas, known as carbon dioxide (CO2). Such greenhouse gases as methane (CH4) and CO2 entrap the sun’s energy into the atmosphere. There has recently been a tremendous emphasis on reduction of the fossil fuels use as they are thought to be the most fundamental cause of increase in global warming. In this paper, the question noted above has been answered with support of scientific studies to show that global warming is a real issue. According to the meteorites’ radioactive dating, it has been 4.6 billion years since the solar system of which earth forms a part has been found. Examination of the minerals preserved in earth and the scientific study of rocks has shown that earth has contained liquid water for 4.3 billion years (Watson and Harrison). Since then, climate of earth has largely remained stable, with occasional freezing in certain areas that have always remained as such. It is the massive increase in the energy drawn from sun that has caused a tremendous increase in the earth’s temperature. According to an estimate, there has been a 30 per cent increase in the energy output on earth from sun since the start of the solar system (Gough). Part of the energy drawn from the sun is reflected and some is retained. Some portion of the energy that gets absorbed in earth radiates back and escapes into the space. It is the energy absorbed minus energy radiated that decides the temperature of earth. Composition of the earth’s atmosphere also plays a decisive role in the increase of temperature. 99 per cent of the gases that atmosphere contains like oxygen and nitrogen are transparent towards the energy drawn from sun. Other gases like CO2 and water vapors tend to reduce the process of radiation of the energy from earth to the space. Therefore, increase in the level of these gases obviously increases the temperature of earth and contributes to the global warming. Of the two gases, it is the CO2 that concerns scientists the most because the water vapors in atmosphere remain constant in amount as compared to the CO2. Now, if the CO2 level in the atmosphere is increasing, global warming is then indeed, a real issue! The biggest source of CO2 is the fossil fuels. In addition to that, decomposition of materials and burning of wood also causes a considerable increase in the content of CO2 in the atmosphere. The rapid industrialization that has occurred in the recent centuries has caused a manifold increase in the CO2 level in the atmosphere. The reason why the resulting increase in the earth’s temperature is an issue is that this directly affects the ecosystem prevailing on earth. If the CO2 level continues to increase at the present rate, earth will soon become inhabitable for almost all species including humans, and life on earth will extinguish. The following text examines what recent studies have said about the CO2 levels in the atmosphere. (Deem) has shown the rate of annual increase in the C

Allegory 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Allegory 3 - Assignment Example She only took their old clothes and things from their old life before they got rich. The truck driver was unrepentant. He continued his vices which consumed all his money. Soon, he woke up homeless and carless because his debts resulted to him losing everything. When he went to his old village, he found his wife living with another man, a truck driver who loved her and her children, a man who came home not smelling like alcohol and with red eyes from drug abuse, but one with a smile and long hugs for everyone. That night, the truck driver jumped from the bridge to embrace death that ended all his pain. One day, there was a good eldest son. His family was poor. He had ten siblings. He worked since the day he could walk, selling food and anything else he could at the market. His mother also cooked food and sold them at the market. He had no father. His father left them after his eleventh sibling was born. The good son was also intelligent. He was a straight A student. Because of his intelligence and hard work, he finished college. However, his youngest brother got sick. He needed a heart transplant. The waiting list was long for heart donors. The good son thought about his brother. He was also very intelligent and kind. He wanted to be a doctor. The good son told his brother’s doctor that he would donate his heart to his brother. The doctor was alarmed and said it could not happen, unless he died. The next day, the good son died of aneurism. His brother got his heart and lived. He became a doctor and saved many lives. It was 2666. The state was ruled by robots. Some of the leader robots wanted to kill all humans because they were weaker and less intelligent than they are. Others wanted to preserve them in zoos because they were the last of their kind. Other robots thought that humans still had a purpose. They could be slaves and do different jobs for them. The humans

Convergence Law and Its Relevance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Convergence Law and Its Relevance - Essay Example As such, the paper discusses the multiple factors that have had an influence on the formation and convergence of European law. Primarily, this convergence is the result of the necessity of uniformism that has been demanded since the European Union first formed. As a result, integrations have taken place based on the interpretation of individual laws, as well as entire constitutional understanding. As the idea of citizenship has been defined to incorporate an individual into the greater whole of the European Union, likewise individual interpretations of existing law has been forced to be understood, fabricated, and analyzed through the very same constructs. As a vehicle for understanding this concept, Tryfonadou introduces the topic of free movement of persons and free movement of goods as it evolved in the late 1990’s through early 2000’s. Perhaps, one of the best examples of this convergence can be seen in what Tryfonadou describes as the â€Å"restriction† and â€Å"discrimination† of free movement law. ... persons, existing laws have made an attempt, according to Tryfonadou, to juxtapose the two and come to a common understanding and definition in the scope of the laws. (1) The author goes on to explain to the reader the differences between subsidiarity law principles and proportionality principles. Subsidiarity requires that the community adopt the legislation only if it is a requirement to achieve a given object. Accordingly, proportionality requires that the burden of the law’s enactment be proportionally weighted so as not to be too heavy with relation to the objective that is trying to be achieved. An unavoidable facet of the European Union’s construction requires that one understand and realize the importance of the many different legal systems that make up its component parts, as well as how each of these systems begins to find a certain commonality within the law, i.e. the convergence principle that Tryfonadou has written. Due to the additional fact that the Europ ean Union is made up of a multiplicity of differing legal systems of its member states, recognition of the defining legal principles which each system espouse combined with the aforementioned principles of subsidiarity and proportionality lead invariably to a form of legal diversity. In short, even though the diverse systems of law that are extant within the European Union espouse similar legal views on a variety of different and diverse topics (i.e. Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian law) all have a host of commonalities with which to draw from. Regardless, the formation of the European Union has provided a type of centrifugal force that has worked to mold each of the aforementioned member states particular understanding into a more common and generally accepted form of jurisprudence which had

IT - Hydro-Quebec Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

IT - Hydro-Quebec - Essay Example The changing climate has affected the hydro electric utilities to a great extent. It should be noted in this context that the hydro power generation tends to be more vulnerable to the changes in terms of climatic conditions than other sources including the thermal power station. For instance, hydro power project located near the sea-coast have often been noticed to be affected by the rise in the sea level. Again, dry weather conditions and reduced water level in the reservoirs have also affected its electricity production. Numbers of other climatic factors such as lightning, rise in temperature, icing and pollution have been the major uncontrollable threats faced by Hydro-Quebec. Furthermore, the organization has been unable to take the advantage of wind power as one of the best options of renewable energy (Hydro-Quebec, 2008). During 1990s, technology and business units’ efforts to control return on the invested capital for IT management has brought major changes in the way o f Hydro-Quebec. The SSC was held responsible for the IT related decisions. However, it was observed that it initiated changes only in terms of human resources due to departmental expansion taking place within the company. Those changes made by the SSC caused distortion both within the business units and within the IT divisions. Furthermore, the SSC was responsible for developing and implementing all the technological aspects of the given solution, optimizing technological performance and maintaining as well as executing the developed solutions. However, creating new challenges for the SSC as the IT division had to negotiate all of the technology budgets with each division separately following a more complex process. Consequentially, it was observed that Hydro-Quebec Distribution (HQD) spent more than $50 million on over 200 IT systems. However, it had no clear strategy or proper system plan that could be formally drawn up after its establishment. Many factors force the division to i nclude the IT related issues under its caption, such as the technological zeitgeist during the 1990s. Owing to such circumstances; there has been an urgent requirement to update the company’s legacy system as it was observed that the old system was more vulnerable to risk along with a high maintenance cost. Furthermore, there was a need to update its entire infrastructure related to mailing and printing of bills. The factors like managing the addresses of its customers were also identified as impossible to be maintained with the traditional system. Thus, there was an urgent need to modernize customer software application (Hydro-Quebec, 2008). Question 2: What changes would you suggest for Hydro-Quebec and why? Hydro-Quebec should concentrate more on developing its research programs in order to boast its human resource knowledge in terms of climate change and technological adaption. Hydro-Quebec must identify the areas that are sensitive towards climatic changes and other unco ntrollable risks. Its activities also must be directed towards managing water resources, transports, distributions, equipment designs, and annual production volumes along with environmental and financial considerations. It should also contribute for the development of wind power and increase in the supply from the existing power generating stations (Dube, Berner & Roy, 2007). Furthermore, the organization should promote recycling processes along with educating employees in terms of