Writing Engineering Abstracts(43)

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(+) Our working group has become
increasingly intrigued with the current trend in contractual disputes that
often lead to time schedule delays.
A strictly adhered to time schedule is of priority concern in civil
engineering, with company owners and contractors often struggling to
reach a consensus on deadlines and constraints, requiring that
regulations, construction practices and schedule are clearly agreed
upon in the contract. While the time schedule outlined in a contract is
defined according to calendar dates, working days and project phases,
actual construction tasks are often complex and fail to comply with
antiquated time schedules. Therefore, this work describes an
enhanced contract time schedule that incorporates calendar dates,
working days and project phases. As duration of a contract includes
many circumstances, using only one time framework to determine the
entire project schedule time is an unreliable approach that will create
friction between the company owner and contractor. All foreseeable
circumstances must be integrated into the contract schedule.
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The scope of the projects activities is determined. A time
schedule for each work task is then confirmed. Next, weather
conditions during the project are also forecasted. Additionally, the role
of al ternati ve desi gn and administrati ve assi gnments duri ng
implementation of the contract is evaluated. Moreover, other ways in
which the contractor influences this contracted work are assessed.
Finally, the above influences on this contract are considered to
determine the actual project schedule time. Analysis
results indicate that the proposed contract time schedule determines
more accurately the time constraints in a construction project than
conventional methods can. In addition to achieving a more accurate
budget than the originally forecasted one, the proposed schedule
ensures a higher quality than previous ones. In
addition to accurately predicting project completion, the proposed
schedule can determine budgetary constraints precisely.
(1 of 2)
(+) Slope mitigation efforts in
many countries, including Taiwan, have focused on rainfall
induced, shallow type landslides of lateretic soil. Although
saturated soil mechanics is conventionally adopted to
analyze slope stability, many slopes remain unsaturated
dur i ng ordi nar y weat her and st or my condi t i ons.
Convent i onal l y adopt ed sat urated soi l mechani cs
procedures are limited in slope analyses owing to the
inability not only to explain why the slope remains stable
under a sharp slope angle during the dry season, but also
to predict accurately the failure time of the slope during
stormy conditions. Therefore, this study investigates
rainfall induced shallow type landslides in Taiwan by
adopting the theory of unsaturated soil mechanics. Capable
of determining the shear strength of soil during dry and
rainy seasons, the proposed method can estimate the
safety factor of the slope under various conditions.
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The rainfall intensity and infiltration rate of the slope surface
are simulated using SEEP/W. The distribution of water pressure
soil slope under various conditions is then determined via
SEEP/W. Finally, results of SEEP/W are used as an input to the
SLOPE/W in order to determine the slope stability under various
conditions. Analytical results indicate that,
based on the unsaturated soil theory, the proposed method
evaluates the failure mechanism and failure time of a natural soil
slope precisely. Additionally, the method explains why the slope
can maintain a sharp slope angle during the dry season.
Importantly, the proposed method increases the
accuracy of slope stability analyses. The failure mechanism and
mitigation methods for the shallow type landslides are more
reliable for future applications.
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