Grabbing the opportunity: Fourth Industrial Revolution

Fig 1: The steam powered machine

It was mid nineteenth century when steam engine was developed in Great Britain; this was the first industrial revolution. The involvement of people shifted from hand production methods to the machine production methods. Machines assisted humans in producing the goods and products. The operation of factories such as: metal, chemical and textile factories became more efficient and these eventually led to huge increase in the turnover. The country was economically reinforced. Now, Britain became the center of world economy. Quickly, other European countries and North America followed the path of Great Britain. This resulted in economic development of whole of the Europe and North America.

Fig 2: Ford Assembly Line

Likewise, with the refinement of the technology, which used electric power, and the desire for making the automobile accessible to common people, Henry Ford in the beginning of twentieth century in United States of America started mass manufacturing production plant of the Ford Automobile. Even though Ford did not invent the auto mobile, his leadership in developing mass production plant decreased the price of the automobile to a decent amount. It was first time in the history that common people could afford an automobile. This was the second industrial revolution. Similar such assembly lines for mass production were copied by industries thorough out America and later in Europe. The United States of America grasped this opportunity first and hence became the economic power house supplanting the Great Britain, which previously occupied this position.

Fig 3: Conceptual diagram of Internet

Again, the digital revolution, which is the third industrial revolution, took place in United States of America during 1970s. This eon distinguished itself as the transition from the analog devices to the digital ones. The invention of personal computers, information and communication technologies and the internet characterized this revolution. The previously mechanized operations were, now, automated by the aid of computers. This, further, sped up the manufacturing process increasing the revenue. Similarly, the business which used to be limited in scope, now, enjoyed the bigger market as a result of the easy and wide communication. For instance, people in Nepal could have access to the Apple mobile phone, which was designed in United States and manufactured in China. None of this would have been possible, had there not been the invention of information and communication technology. Moreover, the democratization of the information as a corollary of internet, took place during this era. The courses taught in Massachusetts Institute of Technology could easily be accessed through the YouTube, a video sharing platform. For a second time, as this revolution started in USA, most of the American business got the first hand in this. The economic power remained in the USA itself. European countries recognized these technologies shortly and secured respectable economic positions. Most recently, China and India are adopting these advancements. As a consequence of their step, their economy is sharply rising. These two countries are, currently, considered the emerging economic power houses.

Fig 3: Bionics arm functioning as real arm

Contemporarily, the world is at the end of the digital revolution. The fourth industrial revolution is on its way as a baby of the third industrial revolution. Unlike previous revolutions, it is going to be a combination of the technological advancement in diverse fields: from the biology to the computer science. The advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Manufacturing Robots, Three Dimensional Printing, Bionics and Cloud Computing to name some have already shown that fourth industrial revolution is at our door step. The fourth industrial revolution will be consumer oriented. The services and goods produced will be customized according to the need of the person. The industries will be located within the locality where it is consumed, which is contrast to the present trend. There will be yet another economic shift. The present place of economic power centers may be substituted by the emerging economies.

Fig 4: Google's Self Driving Car

Fig 5: Demonstration of 3-D printing

Nonetheless, this technological progression is still in its puerile stage. This is an opportunity for developing countries like Nepal. With the state of demographic dividend in the country this can't be more favorable. Again, the recent political change has brought optimism among the people. The basic requirement of stable, managed and mature political environment is likely to be achieved. Though, the political transition of roughly six decades has polluted most of the administrative sector, the progress in the cleansing of those seems to be encouraging. It is high time for Nepal to concentrate on its economy and upgrade it. Most importantly, people should understand that it is not the struggle against the caste and creed that they should immerse themselves on, it is the rebellion against the old technology that the people should focus their attention to. A quick glance to the history shows that the development of new technologies have always shifted the economy from one community to another, this can a good chance. More precisely, the fourth industrial revolution is likely to bring an economic earthquake, of course a positive one.

Fig 6: Nepal as a economic Super Power

 Thus, the Nepalese government must comprehend the current situation and the demand. Programs such as incorporating the courses educating the technologies, as mentioned above, in the schools and universities is a step that must be taken immediately. For instance, the coding should be made compulsory in the school level, as it is the language of the future. Similarly, proper ways of attracting the Nepalese youth living abroad should be carefully thought of and should be executed. In addition to that entrepreneurship should be encouraged. The entrepreneurs should be provided with incentives and environment where they can operate expediently. This should not be limited to paper only; concrete actions should be taken for this. Let’s not miss this window of opportunity. 

Pratik Raj Pahari
Civil Engineer
12/28/2017

Demographic Dividend

Finding the Lost Youth!

There is a problem when there are resources but there is no one to process it. Our country, Nepal, is living under this situation. Instead of exporting the produced goods and services, our country is exporting huge number of manpower abroad, specially semi-skilled and non-skilled. In over 20 years, more than 10 % of the country’s population has left to work abroad. Despite this fact, the Nepalese gone abroad have acquired special technical skills and trainings. There is a good chance that the surge of highly skilled manpower back to the homeland can trigger the development in a very short period of time.
At present, the remittance has been a major contributing factor for country’s revenue. It contributes to about 31.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (Asian Economic Integration Report,2016). We are among the top in the chart. Remittance has brought about immediate relief to the economic constraints and increased the living standard of the people in a short time. In spite of this, in the national scenario, it has encouraged the people in the homeland to be dependent and its continuation in the long run is not guaranteed. With majority of youths in the country being dependent and remaining working abroad, there has been economic mess inside the nation. Further, there has been increase in investment in non-productive assets that is increasing the liabilities of the country.

 On the bright side, our state can benefit from the remittance. If we use the remittance money in productive assets, it will earn us the foreign currency. In our case, areas having maximum potential are hydropower, agriculture, tourism and service. This will create job opportunities in the country itself. Eventually, trend of flying abroad for work will slow down.
Likewise, with no active manpower at home our country is relying on donations. Donations may be attractive initially, but are ephemeral. There is an old Chinese saying, “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.”  Now, there is a choice, whether we want to have development that is constricted and is for limited time; or work hard, producing goods and services, developing the assiduous culture throughout the nation, and bring about the perennial development. Donations provide necessary support, but no country has progressed from the donations only. For example, after the devastation from the Second World War, Germany and other European countries worked persistently to develop their agricultural and industrial sectors which were damaged during the war. This eventually uplifted the countries from the ruins. Currently, these nations are one of the most powerful economies in the world. Thus, having donations for development is good, but relying on donations and expecting it shows our dependency and our incompetency.

Similarly, according to the statistics, about 59.8% people in Nepal are between 15 to 65 year of age (Nepal Demographic Profile,2011). This state of condition is called the demographic dividend and is the golden era for youth action. It is the most suitable time for bringing about economic development in the country. Luring the youths gone abroad; and encouraging the youth in the country to participate in developmental and productive sector will give us the development we want in the near future.

Lastly, youths are impatient and are discouraged if they come across hurdles on their way. To add oil to the fire, our country has a system that is very accustomed to placing hurdles, even though it is not necessary. As there is no culture of respecting the tax providers, the youths find the way to the airport the only reasonable option.  Even though the system is depressing, it is reshaping slowly. As there is a saying, “Rome was not built in a day”, it will take some time for the system to re-institutionalize. Accordingly, youths should, also, develop patience and positivity. Instead of deserting the country, it is best if the youth with leadership stay in the country to lead and bring the change they want; youth with skill stay in the country and produce goods and services; and youth with knowledge stay in the country and train the next generations. This way we can develop a good governance system, cultivate productive economy, and prepare for the future.

Pratik Raj Pahari

Sunkoshi Hydropower Project (Head Works)

An Introduction

Salient Features

Sunkoshi HPP is a PRoR project.

Full capacity : 10.05 MW ( 3 units generating 3.35 MW each) at 6.3 KV

Construction start date: December of 1968

Construction complete date: January 1972

Project cost : 11 Crore NRs.

Well, you can buy 223 bullet motor cycle with that money.

The project was constructed as bilateral project with funding provided from then Chinese Government and then His majesty’s Government of Nepal.

                                                     Sunkoshi Barrage
                                           

                                       Sunkoshi barrage with hoisting room above
 

Canal

The average discharge in Sunkoshi River:

88 cu.sec.

There is a canal constructed with discharge capacity of 40 cu.sec 

There are two canals:

1.Main canal (2793m)

2.Side canal 

Under normal condition, main canal operates. 

However, whenever the main canal is not functioning due 

to the dredging work in settling basin, side can takes its

place. At present side canal is functioning.

Settling Basin 

 

Hopper type settling basin is present in main canal .It is  a continuous flushing system.

 

  
 Hopper type Settling basin                                                                                              Settling basin filled with sediment



 

Trash Rack

Trash rack is present in both

Main and Side canals’ entrance.

It functions in checking the entry larger sediments  and the floating debris in the river

 

 


 

Peaking Pond
 
Size of Preaking pond : 67000 cu m

It is used for satisfying the peaking demand of one and  half day.

It is not functional at present.

Forebay
 
Size of Forebay is 18000 cu.m

It is energy dissipating structure.

It protects the 3 Penstocks below.

It is also provided with trash rack.

 
 

Penstock

There are 3 Penstocks.

Its length is 87m each and the diameter is 2.4 m each.

These are extremely expensive.

At present only two are runing, due to the misphap that occurred in upstream of the barrage.

 

Turbine

The are 3 turbines receiving flow form 3 penstocks.

Turbine type:

Reaction turbine- Francis turbine.

Which is the desirabe turbine for medium head of 30.5m

The speed of rotation( optimum)= 300rpm.

 

 Other features

- 8 years earlier  : Manual Cotrol System.

-At present :Electronic Control System.

-Cooling system:

-Natural air cooling-Air forced cooling  

-Water forced cooling

-Oil cooling   (90 liter of oil is used)

                               
                                                 Plan of Sunkoshi Hydropower Project showing its headworks

NEPAL Earthquake: Engineers' Perspective

Our Experience

As we observed numerous houses and evaluated them, we were amazed, baffled and sometimes vexed by the ignorance of ours considering our own safety. We found every case a different one and every decision a critical one.

We were completely amazed to see few five story load bearing, mud mortar house with minor cracks only, in the locality where most of ancient monument had been destroyed. Similarly, observing a partially collapsed structure which wasn’t further damaged by the earthquake of moment magnitude (M_w) of 7.8 M_w was a sight to see.

We were literally annoyed when we saw a load bearing- mud mortar structure with cement mortar wall constructed above, such building were severely damaged by this earthquake. Again, construction of whole room or a portion of room on a cantilever area showed height of our ignorance, such buildings were also heavily damaged.   Further, we found cases in which the building as whole was a combination of load bearing and framed structure; basically those building housed stair portion in loadbearing part and other dwelling portion in framed portion. What the hell, right? The worst part is that, in most of the cases the load bearing part is completely damaged and the framed portion is not.

The poor workmanship during the construction has been found to be a major cause of failure as well. Improper mixing of concrete, faulty pouring concrete leading to segregation and bleeding, haphazard spacing of stirrups, inadequate cross-sectional area of the reinforcement bars, splicing of the reinforcement bar in wrong way at a wrong place and insufficient clear cover in the beam and columns are some of many factors which have triggered the failure of the structure.

When there is inadequate number of reinforcing bars then the column cannot take the load acting on it and it fails. If there is absence of stirrups or if they are largely spaced then there is high probability of shear failure as all the shear force will not be resisted by the concrete and longitudinal steel only. The splicing of the reinforced bar at the column-beam joint and splicing of more than fifty percent rebar at the same level makes the corresponding level weak and there is risk of failure at that point. Again the splicing should be done in such a way such that the load exerted from the centerline of one bar is transferred to the centerline of another rebar. These things should be considered while designing the building.

A Civil Engineer is a person who has specialized in the field of safe and economic construction of the structure, construction without the consultation of the engineer can have lethal consequences; most of us might have realized this by now. Whilst evaluating structures, we found many structures constructed without the technical assistance of the engineer. We came across many cases in which the structures were bought after construction by someone else; in such case we found the owner unknown about the structural features of the house. We found most of such owner raising the story without engineering consultation, so that they can rent the excess flats. Many of such houses are brutally damaged by this earthquake. These improperly constructed building have also greatly affected the neighboring house having sound structural feature. The buildings which were constructed properly following the building code, consulting engineer and using proper material have survived this earthquake with little or no damage and those buildings would have stood even if the earthquake was much greater.

Let’s take technical advice from the engineer while constructing our house, let’s get the construction supervised during the construction, and let’s be safe and happy. Yes, the engineers do charge some amount of money, but isn’t it worth for the safety of ours and the ones we love?

PS During the Barpak Earthquake 2015 while working in Bhukampa.net as volunteer.

Shear Wall and Pile Foundation

Engineering Rocks presents

Shear wall and Pile foundation

March 7,2015. Today I felt like an actual “Civil Engineer” at a construction site in Babarmahal, Kathmandu, Nepal. In contrast to the highly needed, but quite perplexing theories, I experienced overflow of tons of concrete knowledge that you and I should know before suiting up for the site.

Do you know how the shear wall looks like? I guess only few of us have seen it in actual.

 

Figure 1: Shear wall.

These are the reinforced concrete walls in buildings to carry vertical as well as lateral loads. The shear term is misnomer as it resists major portion of the lateral shear through flexure deformation and not through shear deformation. The flexure wall is a better term. A structure of shear walls in the center of a large building — often encasing an elevator shaft or stairwell — form a shear core. The shear wall shown in the figure is being constructed for the upper and lower basement of the 9.5 storey , 3 Star hotel. Here, shear wall is constructed for the purpose of resisting the lateral load due to the earth as well as the vertical load. Shear wall constructed is of 9 inch thickness.

I bet that the following picture will help you visualize the pile foundation, if you haven’t seen it.

 

Figure 2: Pile foundation

 

Pile as the geek would say- Pile is a slender structural member made up of steel wood or concrete, which is used to transfer loads to the deeper strata below; when the soil at or near the ground surface is not capable of supporting  the structure to be constructed. In the figure shown we can see a lump of engineer’s nightmare, i.e. Black Cotton soil at the left and bottom side; which has very low bearing capacity, but it is quite gifted soil when it comes to agriculture.  Due to the expansive nature, which swells or shrinks as the water content changes in the soil pile foundation is used in the above case. The pile used here is concrete- friction pile of 10m deep, yes you heard correct it is 10m deep. 

Figure 3: Mat above Pile foundation.

The figure shows the picture of mat of concrete above pile foundation- a typical Pile with Mat foundation. It takes the load of the super structure and transfers below to the pile. Hey do you know why mat foundation is constructed. Guess what, it is to prevent differential settlement of the structure above due to uneven loading.  The Mat foundation shown above is of 4 feet depth, yeah it is thick as hell. Don’t get surprised now there is something more.

  

Figure: Bruj Khalifa

You all know which is the tallest building at present, right? Any ways, I will acknowledge you about that, the tallest building in the world is Burj Khalifa. Its location is 25°11′49.7″N 55°16′26.8″E. Hey don’t start googling, I am just kidding around, it is located in 1 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Blvd - Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Did you know that the Pile foundation of Burj is 43 meter deep , has 1.5 meter diameter and the Mat foundation of it is 3.7 meter thick. Now is the time to get surprised . Anyways it is pretty standard for a kilometer tall building ( actual height 829.8 meter). It is a vertical city in itself.

No wonder you all have known a lot, isn't it?

                                                                                         See ya!!

PS Thank You Dipesh Dhimal Dai