Ebook: Hydraulic and Civil Engineering Technology IX

The 9th International Technical Conference on Frontiers of Hydraulic and Civil Engineering Technology (HCET24) was held from 25 to 27 September 2024 in Sanya, China. HCET2024 is organized by the China Construction Seventh Engineering Division Corp. Ltd., Henan Polytechnic University, and China, Southwest Jiaotong University, China, and is co-supported by CUG (China University of Geosciences, Wuhan); the CCCC Construction Group Co. Ltd. (Research and Development Center of Green Building Technology, CCCC), China; the China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co. Ltd. (MBEC); the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada; the University of Texas at Arlington, USA; Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany; and Rongzhi Science and Technology Center, China. HCET offers a global exchange platform to facilitate discussion around specific subject areas, with the goal of generating new knowledge, technology and applications in hydraulic engineering and civil engineering by forging and expanding new international communications, intercultural and interdisciplinary research networks and partnerships. The conference series continues to offer an important opportunity for modern engineering communities to share research and best practice.

This volume is a collection of the excellent contributions presented at the conference. This year, the committee received 428 submissions of international papers. All were peer-reviewed through a double-blind review process by an international panel of at least two international expert referees, and decisions were based on the research quality of the papers. A total of 199 papers from domestic and international scholars were accepted, which represents an acceptance rate of approximately 46%.

This book is organized in 8 sections according to theme: civil engineering and technology; materials for construction and civil engineering; water conservancy and hydropower engineering; geotechnical, geological and underground engineering; road and bridge engineering; transportation engineering; coal science and technology, energy and environmental engineering; and optimization, simulation technology and interdisciplinary applications. The accepted papers cover a wide range of topics, including soil-structure interaction, tall buildings, building facade systems, BIM technology, construction technology, ultra-high-toughness cement-based composites, mechanical properties of civil engineering materials, asphalt/concrete mixtures, material testing technology, physico-chemical properties of soils, flow characteristics, geographical information systems (GIS), tunnel engineering, seismic resistance, hydro power stations, coal-mine safety and management, waste to energy, double carbon, remote detection technology, and optimization design methods. The HCET2024 conference was attended by about 200 participants and consisted of a hosted opening ceremony, keynote speeches, oral sessions and poster presentations, a Q&A session, and a closing ceremony. Six invited professors shared their latest research findings, key challenges, and development trends in the keynote speeches. They are: Professor Bruno Brunone, from the University of Perugia, Italy; Professor Lei Yan, from the Earth & Space Science School (RS&GIS Institute), Peking University, China; Professor Bang-Fuh Chen, from the National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan, China; Professor Shuren Wang, School of Civil Engineering of Henan Polytechnic University, China; Professor Mohamed Abdelkader Ismail, from Brunel London School, North China University of Technology, China; and Professor Haijun Wang, from the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, China.

Finally, we would like to thank all the experts, sponsors, and conference staff for their contributions and hard work, and for making the conference successful. We also owe our thanks to all the HCET committee members for their careful comments and advice throughout this conference, and the HCET reviewers for their valuable experience and comments. Finally, we would like to thank IOS Press for their support in producing this volume.

We look forward to seeing you at HCET2025 in Xinjiang, China.

Conference Chairs

Prof. Yanjun Qiu, Southwest Jiaotong University, China

Prof. Wanqing Lu, China Construction Seventh Engineering Division. Corp. Ltd., China

Prof. Jianhui Yang, Henan Polytechnic University, China

Prof. Said Easa, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada

11 October 2024

The problems of filtration of suspensions in porous media, which are an integral part of underground hydromechanics, are solved when designing foundations and underground structures. As a rule, suspended particles of a suspension are heterogeneous and differ in shape and size. A model of filtration of a multiparticle suspension in a porous medium is considered. During filtration, the sedimentation rates of particles depend on their sizes and are proportional to the corresponding filtration coefficients, which are a priori unknown. In laboratory experiments, it is possible to determine the total concentration of suspended particles of a suspension at the porous sample inlet and outlet. The filtration coefficients are expressed from measured suspended concentrations. The article proposes a method for solving the inverse problem based on an explicit exact solution of the direct filtration problem at the concentration front. The inverse problem is reduced to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations. For a bidisperse suspension, an exact solution is found; for a multiparticle suspension, the inverse problem is solved numerically. The conditions necessary for the solution existence are derived.

Glass-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) pipes are increasingly preferred in modern engineering applications such as chemical processing, marine structures, and water and sewage systems due to their superior mechanical properties, including a high strength-to-weight ratio and exceptional corrosion resistance. This study explores the combined effects of local loads and axial pre-compressive forces on free-spanning GFRP pipes through a series of experimental tests. Five pipe specimens, all with identical geometric properties, were subjected to axial pre-compressive forces ranging from 10% to 30% of the pipe’s cross-sectional fracture capacity, followed by local loading. The experimental results demonstrated a significant reduction in the ultimate load-bearing capacity of the GFRP pipes as axial pre-compression increased. Specifically, the load capacity decreased by approximately 67% when the axial pre-compressive load increased from 10% to 30% of the pipe’s fracture capacity. These findings provide valuable insights into the mechanical performance of GFRP pipes under complex loading scenarios, which are essential for the design and assessment of GFRP pipelines in practical applications.

This study considers 3D modeling to compare the seismic performance of hybrid control systems. The hybrid system in this research combines the usage of tuned mass dampers and seismic isolation. This seismic performance of this system is investigated under the effects of earthquakes and by considering soil-structure interaction. Analysis was performed by SAP2000 software. The dynamic analysis under earthquake effect was carried out by time domain analysis method. The example structure is symmetrical and has ten stories. The example building control cases are; fixed base conventional building, seismically isolated building, building incorporating tuned mass damper (TMD), and hybridly controlled building that combines the use of both seismic isolation and tuned mass damper. In these cases, numerical findings are obtained by considering soil-structure interaction. The results are presented comparatively for all different control and soil cases. It is obtained from this study that during the design of a building with isolators or TMD’s, soil-structure interaction should not be disregarded.

The current study addresses the high risk of buckling in open-top tanks. The only method of reinforcing the walls is to arrange the stiffened rings. However, existing regulatory documents offer methods for the arrangement of rings without taking into account the peculiarities of the operation of tanks without a stationary roof and the uneven wind pressure. Using the SolidWorks software, an updated wind load diagram was obtained, which showed differences between it and the normative up to 40% zone of the upper belt. Further, in the LIRA-SAPR, by sequentially enumerating the options, dependencies are determined that allow placing stiffened rings. The expression is determined for tanks with a volume of 10–30 thousand m³, through the λ parameter, taking into account the geometry of the tank and the specified shape of the wind pressure. As a result of the recommendations, the stability of the wall increases in the range of 6–14% compared to the normative placement of the corresponding number of rings.

To study the effect of hoop coefficient on the axial compression performance of circular steel tube reinforced concrete columns, finite element software ABAQUS was used to model, calculate, and verify three existing circular steel tube reinforced concrete column specimens. The hoop coefficient (steel tube strength, steel tube thickness) was used as a variable parameter to conduct an extended analysis of nine specimens, and the influence of each influencing parameter on the axial compression performance of the specimens was explored. The research results indicate that the established finite element model can accurately simulate the axial compressive mechanical behavior of circular steel tube concrete columns, and the load displacement curve and failure mode show a high degree of agreement. With the increase of the confinement coefficient in the column, the ultimate bearing capacity of the specimen increases linearly, with an increase of 0.4 in confinement coefficient and a 95% increase in ultimate bearing capacity. The proposed method for calculating the hoop coefficient has a good degree of agreement.

SupaCee represents an innovative form of the channel section, achieved by incorporating stiffeners into the web, which has been shown to enhance stability and increase the sectional capacities. In theoretical calculations, various shear theories for cold-formed sections have been proposed. Traditionally, shear force was considered to be resisted solely by the web, and intermediate web stiffeners often excluded from design considerations. Recent advancements of a new design method namely The Direct Strength Method for cold-formed steel structures have addressed these issues. Incorporating these intermediate stiffeners is believed to improve the shear capacity of the channel section. This paper aims to assess the shear capacities of SupaCee sections by comparing such capacities with those of traditional channel sections. The sections for analysis are selected from commercially available options. The capacities of both SupaCee and channel sections are calculated according to the Australian Standard AS/NZS 4600-2018. The results will provide insights into the effectiveness of SupaCee sections in enhancing shear strengths compared to those of traditional channel sections.

The Xianning Yong’an Pavilion scenic spot project is an imitation of the Song Dynasty. There are platform foundations on the first and second floors on the north and south sides of the main building, and there is no platform foundation on the east and west sides. The 4th, 6th, 8th, and 9th floors all have eaves that can be raised outside, and the length of the eaves is about 4 meters. Considering the long construction period and low work efficiency of the antique buildings, the overhanging steel platform support frame is considered as the formwork support for the eaves outside the eaves area, and the full hall scaffolding and protective outer frame are set up on the overhanging platform. The mechanical analysis of the relevant parameters of the support system using the safety calculation software proves the safety of the support system. Considering the long construction period and low efficiency of the antique building, it is considered to set up the cantilever steel platform support frame as the support frame of the eaves outside the cornice area, and set up a full scaffold and protective outer frame on the cantilever platform to ensure the safe production and construction quality.

With the rapid development of robot and automation technology, the main structure maintenance robot of building has become an effective solution to improve the maintenance efficiency and quality of the main structure of housing construction. This paper aims to discuss and study the application of the main structure maintenance robot of building construction, and introduces the maintenance robot of the main structure of building construction through the challenges of building main structure maintenance, the advantages of robot maintenance, application cases, robot hardware design and control, and construction effect evaluation, and explains the necessity of maintenance robot for the maintenance of the main structure of building construction. Through maintenance cases, relevant improvement measures are proposed for the design and control of robots, so as to provide reference and guidance for the design of maintenance robots; Digitally empower curing processes with a maintenance approach. In addition, this paper discusses the potential direction and wide application prospect of the future development of the main structure maintenance robot of building construction.

A new lower limbs exoskeleton model for builder and rescue workers, firefighters, and personnel of other emergency services is proposed in the paper. The proposed exoskeleton model is more comfortable than the existing ones because it uses links of alterable length and artificial resilience resulting from the magneto-rheological fluid utilization in the link design. The utilization of this fluid makes it possible to control link stiffness by applying external magnetic field. The exoskeleton has four links of controlled length and the same design. Each link includes the absolutely rigid bottom part with a cylinder attached to it and filled with magneto-rheological fluid. A coil of wire is wound on the cylinder surface. The coil is energized by the electric current when required. The top part of the link includes a piston inside the cylinder with a stem passing outside it. The piston moves inside the cylinder filled with magneto-rheological fluid. The piston features microscopic channels through which the magneto-rheological fluid can flow relatively easy in the absence of magnetic field. If magnetic field is applied, the particles of magneto-rheological fluid are arranged in a way to prevent free flow of the fluid through the piston. Thereby the link stiffness, and consequently the link length control are implemented. The paper lists results of numerically found lengthwise forces applied to the piston in the cylinder filled with magneto-rheological fluid. The proposed exoskeleton model can be widely used by builder and rescue workers because of its comfort, high-speed performance, noiselessness, and great developed force.

This research attempts to solve the problem of interaction between soil and structure at external dynamic impact. Here was included the properties of soil to absorb seismic waves. It is more comprehensive method and here was taken into account a viscous property of “soil-structure” interaction. This path is more advanced than the methods used in simplified ones. Statement of the problem can be applied in direct or variational form. In this issue, a system of integro-differential equations is compiled based on Ostrogradsky-Hamilton variational principles. For solving the problem, a numerical discrete model by using finite element method for hereditarily deformable systems was proposed. A method has been developed for calculating a viscoelastic infinite half-plane with taking into account a viscous fictive boundary for absorbing elastic waves. So technique by introducing fictive boundary is give us opportunity for obtaining more reliable solution for stress and strain state of structure. However, it should be noted that the rheological properties of the soil as the constitutive relations were not used in this article. The method is implemented by performing specific numerical calculations

In the prestressing system of nuclear island containment structures, steel tendons with stress measurement devices are installed to monitor the prestress loss during the construction and operational phases of nuclear power plants. As the effective corrosion protection for monitoring tendons is vital, wax injection techniques for monitoring tendons were explored in this study. By analyzing the critical aspects and challenges therein, selecting anti-corrosion materials and injection devices, and conducting verification tests and on-site construction, the construction processes of wax injection were determined and the effectiveness of domestic equipment was verified. During the wax melting process, stirring can significantly shorten the time it takes for the wax to fully melt. During wax injection, the wax temperature should not be lower than 65°C and should not exceed 130°C. To achieve good injection effect, the injection time should not exceed 30 minutes, with 10 minutes being optimal. Several conclusive findings were proposed and might be useful for engineering practice.

With the development of the construction industry, curved and curved shapes are more and more favored by designers, so they are widely used in large public buildings such as hospitals and shopping malls. Combined with Jingzhou City central hospital engineering example, this paper points out that the safety reliability is the main consideration of stone curtain wall design, construction, the selection of stone principles and selection of dry pendant, the large radius arc dry hanging stone assumption T component, combined with the stress horizontal bending fatigue test results, from the anchor force deformation, anchor root force extension angle, curtain wall after arc stone unit force matrix using the equivalent strength factor analysis, demonstrate the arc thick stone curtain wall safety, hope to building similar arc building curtain wall construction has certain reference role.

The normal operation of the high-voltage transmission lines is seriously affected by the instability of the slope of the transmission line pole tower base. Taking the typical tower foundation soil of two high voltage transmission line towers in Guangdong as the research object, the sensitivity analysis of the influencing factors of tower foundation slope stability based on an orthogonal test was carried out by combining indoor experiment, theoretical analysis, and numerical simulation. The results show that 882^# soil has greater cohesion than 902^# soil, but the internal friction angle is smaller. The ExpDec2 mathematical model and ExpAssoc mathematical model can better simulate the soil-water characteristic curve of 882^# soil and 902^# soil. The range analysis of 4 factors and 4 horizontal orthogonal tests showed that slope height had the greatest influence on the stability of 882^# soil slope, and slope angle had the greatest influence on the stability of 902^# soil slope. This study shows that the main influencing factors of slope stability of two different soils in Guangdong are quite different, and they should be treated differently in the construction and operation of high-voltage transmission line tower projects.

The stability of transmission line tower foundation soil is crucial for the proper functioning of high-voltage transmission lines. To better understand the mechanisms behind soil deformation and instability, soil samples were collected from a transmission line tower foundation in Guangzhou. Tests were conducted under different stress paths to examine the effects of loading and unloading on the mechanical properties of the soil. A constitutive model was developed to account for unloading effects. The results showed that the stress-strain relationship of the foundation soil exhibited normalized characteristics under loading conditions, with peak deviator stress increasing with confining pressure. Soil failure was predominantly characterized by bulging with minor surface cracks. When taking unloading effects into account, the soil initially underwent strain softening followed by strain hardening. The peak deviator stress at failure was lower than under loading, resulting in more severe soil failure. The study highlights the importance of considering the effects of excavation and unloading on foundation soil when constructing tower foundations, and implementing support measures in advance for stress compensation.

Rebar turning sample refers to the construction technicians according to the drawings to calculate the quantity of the detailed processing list and draw the rebar processing sample sketch, turning sample in the past or today is a cumbersome, difficult technical mental labor. The calculation process is complex and cumbersome, requiring rich construction experience, accuracy, rationality and optimization, understanding norms, understanding atlas, understanding drawings, and difficult higher technical occupations. In the practical application process, it is divided into two categories, one is the budget sample, which refers to the steel bar sample of the drawing in the design and budget stage to calculate the content of steel bars in the drawing, for the steel bar cost budget, bidding work, steel bar settlement, etc. The function of rebar flipping mainly includes ensuring the strength and stability of the structure, improving the construction efficiency and construction quality, and avoiding the quality problems of rebar flipping, analyzing the basis of rebar flipping and the thinking of rebar flipping, combining with the examples of rebar flipping, analyzing the rebar flipping technology, optimizing the rebar flipping results, and carrying out the ingredients of the flipping results. This paper describes the application of rebar turning technique in the control of rebar loss rate and construction organization [6].

With the acceleration of urbanization and the improvement of people’s demand for high quality life, pipe jacking project shows the development trend of longer and longer single jacking distance and larger and larger pipe diameter. This development trend requires pipe jacking construction technology to be able to adapt to complex geological conditions, including adaptability to different geological conditions, diversification of pipe jacking machines, and research and development of grouting materials. This paper addresses the implementation of pipe-jacking construction techniques for large pipe diameters and long distances in complex environments. It discusses in detail the selection and performance criteria of materials required in pipe jacking construction, including the characteristics of different materials and their performance in construction. The corresponding solutions and methods are proposed by analyzing the grouting and friction reduction control, intermediate relay technology, and jacking attitude correction control and management technology encountered in long-distance pipe jacking construction. By analyzing specific cases and different solutions for different problem factors, the challenges in the construction process are effectively solved, thus improving the construction efficiency and project quality. This research is significant in coping with the complexity of long-distance, large-diameter pipe jacking construction.

As the main component of a building, the floor slab is not only a load-bearing element, but also an enclosure structure, and plays an important role in the structural system. The floor slabs in prefabricated building systems should not only meet safety and enclosure requirements, but also facilitate construction and meet the requirements of standardization, batch production, and systematic production, in order to achieve true assembly. Although the prefabricated composite floor building system has developed rapidly, there are still many pain points and difficulties in the construction process, and the construction quality is uncontrollable. For example, there have been many problems with the forming quality of the post cast slab strip of the composite slab. This article is based on the Shimao Ten Mile Star River project, and conducts a special research and discussion on the analysis and control of the current quality status of precast composite panels and post cast strip forming. It provides a solution to the key and difficult points of post cast strip construction process control, in order to provide reference for similar projects.

In order to study the influence of the mechanical performance of a unidirectional through precast concrete floor, a group of 3 unidirectional through precast slab specimens were designed to compare the bending performance with that of cast-in-place floor slabs. By investigating the characteristics of the slab failure form, mid-span deflection change, stress change of the reinforcement in the slab, and strain change of the concrete at the bottom of the slab, the following conclusions were drawn: No obvious brittle failure was observed during the test, and the bending resistance of each test plate was good. The crack development of the test board shows that the mechanical performance of the precast wood fiber concrete floor is similar to that of cast-in-place solid floor, and the crack distribution is more uniform. The ultimate bearing capacity of all cavity plates is higher than that of 100 mm thick core plate, and the ultimate bearing capacity of 100 mm thick core plate is increased by about 46.1%.

Due to the restriction of site and cost, no prefabricated beam yard has been built in this project, but cast-in-place. The construction of cast-in-place box girder requires on-site construction and waiting for the solidification of concrete, which takes a relatively long time and cannot be carried out quickly. The construction site conditions of cast-in-place box girder and the ability of construction personnel are different, which are prone to quality problems and cause potential safety risks. Therefore, when pouring small box girder concrete on the support, preparations should be made, including the control of raw material, concrete mix ratio design, formwork reinforcement, and technical disclosure before construction; secondly, the control of the pouring process, pouring method, pouring sequence, and concrete maintenance and mold removal, so as to ensure the quality of box girder concrete after pouring meets the requirements.

With the development of the construction industry, modern buildings have gradually put forward higher requirements in terms of safety, beauty, ease of operation and maintenance, and renovation and upgrading. The construction of comprehensive supports and hangers is simple, and is generally completed before pipeline construction. It can avoid the complicated process of installing supports and hangers during the construction process. The pipeline layout is clear and concise, which not only effectively utilizes space and improves work efficiency, but also has advantages in reducing steel consumption and reducing construction costs. With the development of technology, supports and hangers have evolved from the original single variety to the current diversification, from the original single constant force supports and hangers to the later elastic supports and hangers and restrictive supports and hangers. Comprehensive support and hanger technology is to coordinate the planning of pipelines, bridge supports and hangers for building water supply and drainage, ventilation and air-conditioning, fire protection, and electrical specialties and integrate several specialties into one system, so as to meet the needs of various specialties for supports and hangers under the premise of ensuring the construction requirements of each specialty, and realize the reasonable allocation of installation space and resource sharing.

In recent years, laminated floor has been widely used in prefabricated buildings. Due to the limitation of the current construction technology of prefabricated layer and cast-in-place layer, the laminated floor is too thick as a whole. This problem is expected to be solved by seeking a kind of laminated board external tool technology and efficient construction technology. In this paper, the rigidity and bearing capacity of the prefabricated bottom plate are improved by using the external section steel technology, so as to reduce the thickness of the prefabricated bottom plate and the castin layer. The feasibility is verified from two aspects of technical principle and technology, and the technical advantages and disadvantages of the process are analyzed, including economic benefits, time costs, social benefits and technical difficulties. It is feasible to improve the stiffness and bearing capacity of the prefabricated bottom plate by using the technology of external section steel, and to ensure the force of the prefabricated bottom plate in the construction and demudding stage theoretically. From the technical process, the use of prefabricated bottom plate attached steel technology has increased the steps in the factory production process, increased the transportation times and transportation risks in the storage yard transportation, but reduced the workload in the construction stage, and the overall process is feasible.

In order to study the fire resistance of prestressed continuous composite beams and master the finite element simulation method, a set of two-span steel-mixed continuous prestressed composite beams were designed and tested, and the finite element model of material and geometric nonlinear forces was established by ABAQUS finite element software. By investigating the characteristics of the composite beam under high temperature, such as failure form, deflection change, reaction change at the support, curvature change of key section and internal force change of cable, comparing the test and finite element simulation results, the results show that: Under the standard heating mode, the temperature distribution of each component of the composite beam is different, and the temperature rise rate of the lower flange of the steel beam is the fastest, followed by the web, the upper flange of the steel beam, and the concrete slab. The failure form of the composite beam at high temperature shows that the mid-span deflection is too large, and the web plate and flange of the middle support are distorted. The mid-span deflection decreases gradually with increasing temperature, and the rate starts to accelerate when the temperature is about 450 degrees. The relative tension of the cable decreases first and then increases slowly with the increase of temperature. The relative reaction of the support decreases first and then increases with the increase of temperature. The nonlinear finite element simulation model of two-span prestressed continuous steel-concrete composite beams is obtained after comparison and verification, which provides technical support for further engineering.

As a common form of deep foundation pit support, the construction of diaphragm wall is often affected by the engineering geological situation, hydrogeological conditions and other factors. In this regard, this study takes the deep foundation pit project of Guangzhou Science and Technology Library as an example, firstly, on the basis of sorting out the design method, construction technology and related construction process of diaphragm wall, it analyzes the difficulties in the construction process and puts forward corresponding technical measures; secondly, it carries out the research on the main points of the construction technology and the construction technology method and applies them to the construction of diaphragm wall, which achieves good results. This study can effectively reduce the construction difficulty of deep foundation pit diaphragm wall, and has a positive effect on the cost reduction and efficiency of deep foundation pit diaphragm wall construction.