Infrastructure Development

The fundamental functions of a university are to acquire, to conserve and to disseminate the knowledge for the general betterment. In this line, perhaps a responsibility that lies on the shoulder of a University is to provide technical services to the nation, the world engineering community and profession in important projects.

As a center of excellence, BUET is not only continuing as the focal point for the development and dissemination of engineering and technological know-how within the country, but also it is involved to solve complicated practical problems of national importance faced by the planners, engineers and technologists of the country. The university being the home of highly trained man power, expert services are given through this bureau, causing a fourfold enrichment – enrichment of the nation from the expert services, enrichment of the university, enrichment of the staff and enriched teaching and research from the knowledge acquired through The Bureau of Research, Testing and Consultation. BRTC, BUET undertakes research, testing and consultation works in the field of engineering, architecture and planning, and the constructurion industry at large as entrusted to them by private parties and by government and autonomous bodies.

Bridges

Bangabandhu Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge

Problem identification using analytical and testing tools for Bangabandhu Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge
Worked as Consultant to provide technical services to Bangladesh Bridge Authority, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh during March 2006-June 2006. The causes of extensive cracking of the segmental pre-stressed concrete box girders of the Bangabandhu Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge were identified. The bridge has 48 spans, each having an approximate length of 100m. The segments of the bridge pre-stressed both in longitudinal and in transverse direction. In the analytical investigation, three-dimensional nonlinear model of the bridge was developed through extensive use of finite elements. The Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, when constructed stood as the 11th longest bridge of the world and the longest in Bangladesh as of today. The role of this bridge in the economy of Bangladesh is vital as it provides strategic links for road, rail, electricity and gas transmission between northern and southern part of the country by crossing the Jamuna River, one of the widest rivers of the world. The hydraulic properties of the river and sediments are quite difficult to predict.

Repair and retrofitting of Bangabandhu Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge
As a member of the Expert Committee, now serving the Bangladesh Bridge Authority, Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh by giving technical advices on design and implementation of the repair and retrofitting methodology for the bridge deck and replacement of expansion joints. In this process, analytical results for the box girders of the bridge are vital for assessing the as-built present capacity at critical load combinations and thereby calculating the strengthening requirements. The measures undertaken for repair and strengthening of the deck included extensive use of fibre reinforced polymer strips, thermal insulation and stone mastic asphalt wearing course in the form of laminated composites.

Health Monitoring of Bangabandhu Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge
Working as the Team Leader to monitor the post-repair health condition of the bridge using vibration sensors. Temperature and Humidity Data logging on the top and beneath the deck surfaces are also being done.

Top Supervision Services
Dr. Saiful Amin is providing Top Supervision Services to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority for the ongoing Repair and Strengthening of the Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge. The Bridge Deck is now being repaired and retrofitted with FRP and the Expansion Joints are getting replaced.

Repair of the Bearings, Joints of the Meghna & the Meghna-Gumuti Bridges and stabilizing the foundation from river bed scour

Bridge superstructures are usually designed to accommodate thermal strains due to ambient temperature gradients and deformations due to live loads all extreme possible combinations. Bridge bearings have to transfer forces from the superstructure to the substructure whereas expansion joints allow all movements in the designed directions. Expansion joints should provide a smooth transition at the deck level for vehicle movement, avoid noise/vibration emission as far as possible and withstand all mechanical actions and chemical attacks (de-icing salts, if any) for the designed durability. The design should have the provision for simple replacement of all wearing parts and the entire expansion joints. Dr. Amin extensively studied the subject and conducted extensive research in UG and PG levels to develop local expertise for quality control and quality assurance of rubber bearings and expansion joints. Maintenance, durability, life cycle analysis, replacement techniques of joints and bearings are also the points interests to address.

In this context, Dr. Amin acted as Team Leader of the BRTC, BUET Team to provide technical services to the Roads and Highways Department, Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh for the maintenance and remedial measures of the Meghna and the Meghna-Gumuti Bridges on National Highway N1. These bridges are PC box girder bridges having central hinge and expansion joints to reach 87m span. The expansion joints placed at the hinge locations need to accommodate longitudinal movements occurring not only due to creep, shrinkage and temperature effects but also the longitudinal sways induced by the rotation of piers. Ageing of the bridge can induce reduction of pier stiffness due to fatigue (governed by past loading history) whereas plastic deformations occurred due to creep need also to be accounted. Assessment of expansion demand in an old bridge of this type is critically encountered in maintenance and rehabilitation works. Dr. Saiful Amin having specialization in structural mechanics, constitutive modelling with finite strain theories, experimental observation of constitutive behaviour and finite element implementation of constitutive models gave his expert input in this project as the Team Leader to make emergency repair and final replacement of the joints and bearings of these two bridges. Calculation of expansion-contraction demands and verification was vital. In this course, efforts were made to arrive at a realistic FE model of the bridge including the hinges to adequately take the nonlinear load dependent behavior of the pot bearings into account. Simulations are conducted on different functionality levels of the hinges under standard and overloading situations. Utilization of vibration monitoring data and implementation of eigensystem realization algorithm were important for dynamic characterization of this range of bridges. In the Meghna Bridge, the current displacements were found to be coupled with river bed scour problem. This fixing the pier foundations and protecting the same from scour was the other dimension of this work.

QA & QC of Rubberlike Materials

Dr. Saiful Amin is entrusted for testing rubber and rubberlike materials in the Department of Civil Engineering, BUET via BRTC, BUET. To deliver the service, he is equipping the Structural Mechanics Laboratory of the department to prepare the samples and to test the soft polymeric materials in including rubber for QA & QC purposes following standard procedures. These test reports are vital for QA & QC of bridge bearings for flyovers and bridges in the country.

Investigation of the Collapse of Bohodderhat Flyover during Construction

Appointed by the Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh, Dr. Saiful Amin worked as the Member Secretary of the National Committee to assess the quality of construction of the ill-fated 1.33 km long Bohodderhat flyover, Chittagong where three girders collapsed during construction causing severe injury to life and property and assist the concerned ministry in taking decisions. In this context, the committee looked into details of the quality of construction materials used, quality of the finished construction elements, quality of equipment and arrangement used for construction, quality of construction methodology and sequence adopted and also the quality of safety practice exercised during construction to derive the conclusions about the incident and propose the next steps to be taken by the Government.

Assessment of Construction Defects of PC Bridges

Engaged by the Roads and Highways Department, Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh, Dr. Saiful Amin worked as the Team Leader to check the structural adequacy of a 43m PC girder in 348.12m long PC girder bridge over the Shangkha River at the 8th km of Fultoli-Kanchana-Khoderhat Road under Dohazari Road Division, Chittagong. The Girder 2C of the 2nd Span of the bridge reportedly got laterally deflected about 10 days after application of prestress and subsequent grouting. The BRTC, BUET had to check the structural adequacy of the curved girder (2C) for the design loads. Total Station Survey of the girders in question was used to ascertain the sectional capacities. On site measurement of natural frequency of the girders to make a comparison of the order of stiffness between the acceptable girders and the girder with geometric deformations. A critical comparison between the theoretical and field measurement values was made.

Further services were given also for the bridges over the Mahananda and the Meghna (in Narshingdi) for similar problems.

Checking the Design of Long Span Steel Truss Bridges

Appointed by the Roads and Highways Department, Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh, Dr. Saiful Amin acted as Team Leader to check the structural adequacy and erection methodology of a 100m span steel bridge over the Modhumoti River and a 115m span steel bridge over the Surma River.

Pedestrian Bridge over the Crescent Lake, National Parliament Building of Bangladesh

Checking the structural design adequacy of a suspended-span arch-supported pedestrian bridge constructed over the Crescent Lake near the National Parliament Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The bridge facilitates the movement of pedestrians to the nearby mausoleum of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman, former president of Bangladesh and adjacent Chandrima Garden. The bridge having a suspended span of 56.1m allows the movement of pedestrians over a steel framed tempered glass deck. In addition to the static analysis, the fundamental vibration modes of the arch-deck system was to be examined through dynamic analysis to restrict the pedestrian-induced vibration within acceptable limit in accordance with the recent version of British Code (BS 5400, amended vide BD 37/01 on August 2001). The revision of the British Code took place in 2001 following the observation of serviceability problem due to pedestrian movement induced vibration in the Millennium Bridge, London, UK and Toda Bridge in Tokyo, Japan. The bridge was first of its kind constructed in Bangladesh.

 

Featured Papers:

Amin, A. F. M. S., Bhuiyan, A. R., Hossain, T., & Okui, Y. (2014) |  Amin, A.F.M.S. & Okui, Y. (2015) |  Choudhury, M.S.I., Tobita, R., Amin, A.F.M.S. & Matsumoto, Y. (2015) |  Amin, A.F.M.S., Islam, M.M., Fuad, N., Choudhury, M.S.I., Hasnat, A. & Amanat, K.M. (2015) |  Noor, S.T., Amin, A.F.M.S. & Khan, A.J. (2015) |  Amin, A.F.M.S., Amanat, K.M., Ahsan, R. & Rahmatullah, R. (2015) |  Amin, A.F.M.S., Amanat, K.M., Islam, M.M. & Bhuiyan, M.A.R. (2015) |  Hasan, M.S., Okui, Y., Takai, H. & Amin, A.F.M.S. (2015) |  Sobhan, M.A., Amin, A.F.M.S., (2010) |  Bhuiyan, A.R., Nguyen, D.A., Okui, Y., Amin, A.F.M.S., (2010) |  Maksud-Ul-Alam, M., Amin, A.F.M.S., (2010) |  Amanat, K.M., Amin, A.F.M.S., Hossain, T.R., Kabir, A., Rouf, M.A., (2010) |  Bhuiyan, A.R., Okui, Y., Razzak, M.K., Amin, A.F.M.S., (2010) |  Amin, A.F.M.S., Hossain, T.R., Habib, A. (2005)

Structural Safety Assessment of Industrial Buildings

At this moment, Dr. Saiful Amin is associated with leading a Team to assess the safety of industrial buildings including the garments factories of Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza collapse incident. Extensive use of NDT Techniques and application of fundamental knowledge of Mechanics are key in the techniques employed for visual inspection.

Rejuvenation of Dilapidated Structures

Old structures be it a cultural heritage or a space for day to day use can deteriorate over time due to climatic condition, poor maintenance or construction of inadequate quality. Strengthening of such structures is important from different viewpoints e.g. protecting the culture, improving the safety conditions or to maintain the business facilities. To this end, it is important to choose a technology that is locally available, floor space reduction is minimum, durable and have an overall economic benefit. In BUET, we have mastered application of different technologies including the use of ferrocement technology, jacketing with additional reinforcement and also started the use of FRP composites and laminates.

Projects

  • Gulshan-1 Kacha Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Muhammadpur Town Hall Market, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • New Super Market and Chandrima Market, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Gausia Market, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Karwan Bazar Fish Market, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Implementation of NDT Techniques

Rebar location, layout, depth and clear cover determination

Though reinforced or prestressed concrete is very common in Bangladesh, there are cases when the Engineer needs to know the as-built information about the rebars. It is specially necessary to avoid risky rebar/ prestressing tendon hits during core cutting operation, assessing the safety of an existing structure or permitting for vertical or lateral extension, renovation works and in general the cases where reliable as-built drawings are not available. To this end, the Ferroscan PS 200 machine has been calibrated for local scenario and now being used extensively for different projects of BUET.

NDT for estimating the compressive strength

To determine the in-situ compressive strength of concretes, rebound hammers (Schmidt hammer) and Windsor pins (Resistance to Penetration Tests) are commonly used. However, the correlations between the rebound number, penetration value and the compressive strength depend strongly on the test condition and aggregate characteristics. To this end, we have developed the correlations in Bangladesh context so that the reliability in strength prediction can be enhanced.

Telecommunication Towers

Lattice Towers

Telecommunication sector is one of the fastest developing sector of Bangladesh, now linking no less than 50 million active subscribers wireless. In a flat riverine country like Bangladesh, the mobile telecommunication operators have chosen steel-lattice towers as a plausible option to mount antennas for the backbone network. The economy in lattice design is vital for mass production of the towers. In this backdrop, a number of designs for green field towers up to 90m in height and roof top towers up to 20m in height were either generated/checked for ensuring the capacity to sustain up to 200-260 kph wind speed (fastest mile).

Hybrid Tower

Checked and analyzed the design of Lattice-Tubular Hybrid Pole. The product was targeted to meet the following constraints e.g. reach a minimum height of 42 meters, sustain an average load of 6 nos GSM, 2 nos 1.2m MW and 2 nos 0.6m MW antennas, reduce BTS Site building time, reduce BTS Site building cost and reduce the land requirement. The Lattice-Tubular Hybrid Pole is a combination of a monopole and a lattice tower. A lattice tower of pre-defined height is placed on a monopole of the desired height. The tower is connected on top of the monopole by means of a flange plate.

Precast Piles

Telecommunication sector is one of the fastest developing sector of Bangladesh, now linking no less than 50 million active subscribers. In a flat riverine country like Bangladesh, the mobile telecommunication operators have chosen steel-lattice towers as a plausible option to mount antennas for the backbone network. The foundation for such lattice structures are usually rested on tension piles. To this end, use of spun-prestressed predrilled nonspliced concrete piles up to 12m in length is a viable option in most of teh soil conditions of Bangladesh. The conventional spun-prestressed concrete pole factories can be modified for manufacturing of these piles. These factory manufactured piles give the possibility of faster construction with assured quality.

We checked the design and tested the Uplift capacities of spun-prestressed predrilled nonspliced precast hollow piles for use in founding antenna support structures. The piles have been successfully used in supporting telecommunication towers up to 90m in height at different locations of Bangladesh.

Advisory Services
  • Member, Structural Engineering Team for Updating of Bangladesh National Building Code 1993.
  • Member, Appraisal Committee formed to evaluate the technical feasibility of the construction strategy proposed to expedite the construction of 20 storied (+ 2 basements) reinforced concrete building complex for National Sports Council (NSC Tower) at Dhaka.
  • Member, Advisory Committee for rendering advices for construction of Bogra Medical College and 500-bed Hospital Complex at Bogra, Bangladesh. As per the architectural design, the project had 162,000 sq. meter area with an estimated cost of BDT 2130 million (equivalent to USD 36 million, approx).
  • Checking the vertical and lateral load carrying capacity of the 10m high steel structure designed for the soap pan of Unilever Bangladesh Limited (former Lever Brothers Bangladesh Limited), Kalurghat, Chittagong in accordance with the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC 1993).
  • Evaluate the extent of noise pollution at Padma Textile Mills, Narayangonj (1998); and at Apex Weaving and Finishing Mills, Gazipur (April 2002) to recommend the remedial measures.
  • Structural design of surface water treatment plant constructed at Rangamati in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh (July 2002).
Construction Supervision

Construction of Telecommunication Backbone for Bangladesh Police

Construction supervision of foundation work, CNC fabrication and erection of steel lattice of nine telecommunication towers (3 nos. 90m, 5 nos. 75m, 1 nos. 20 m) for Bangladesh Police Dhaka-Chittagong Radio Link and Dhaka Metropolitan Police Command and Control Center as a part of constructing nation-wide telecommunication backbone for Bangladesh Police was assigned to us. The 90m tower for Dhaka Metropolitan Police Command and Control Center is dedicated to bring the Dhaka Metropolitan City under CCTV streaming and posting online signs at the streets of Dhaka City. All the towers were founded either on locally manufactured pre-cast or cast-in-situ piles. Tower members were locally manufactured using CNC machine. The towers were designed for 210-260 kph wind speed (fastest mile).

Construction of Long-span Doubly Curved Arches for a Pedestrian Bridge

We supervised the construction of two doubly curved variable depth reinforced concrete arches of a pedestrian bridge each having a span of 71.3m and fabrication of the deck system as well. The pedestrian bridge was Constructed over the Crescent Lake near the National Parliament Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The bridge facilitates the movement of pedestrians to the nearby mausoleum of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman, former president of Bangladesh and the adjacent Chandrima Garden. The bridge having a suspended span of 56.1m allows the movement of pedestrians over a steel framed tempered glass deck, the first of its kind constructed in Bangladesh. The construction process for the arches included the use of pumped fair faced concrete. Steel shutters for the doubly curved arches were produced by using CAD generated shop drawings. The bridge was opened for public in 2004.