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After 3 years of working in Indonesia, We have moved out and came back to Hyderabad (India). Our next destination.... another 3 years stint in Africa Reply

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Spanish Designs
Spanish Designs magnify
These days, we are quite busy with designing Pipe Bridge. Out of several options, we have finally selected 'Suspension' type bridge with steel cables because the span is around 25 meters. Bridge with H-beams are ok till 15 meters or so.

While we were collecting several designs, we got a design which is drafted in Spanish. First of all, I didn't understand whether its Espanol or Francis. So I went to one of my French colleague and she told that it should be either Italian or Spanish. I fixed an appointment with a Spanish friend who works in European Union office near by. I got it translated with him, and now in the process of finalizing the concept for the Pipe Bridge.
Wednesday May 14, 2008 - 12:03pm (ICT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Minnie in Taman Sari
Minnie in Taman Sari magnify

There are new attractions in Banda Aceh. Now when you go to local park with your children, Mickey and Minnie will come to play. You can talk to them, dance with them, and finally have a picture with them. But in the end, you know what happens with the children- they started pulling Minnie’s panties!

Wednesday May 14, 2008 - 10:38am (ICT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
The New Hyderabad International Airport
The New Hyderabad International Airport magnify

Finally, I flew in and out of the new ‘Rajeev Gandhi International Airport’ in Hyderabad during last week of April. We, the residents of Hyderabad were eagerly waiting for the inauguration of the airport, and brought some property around that.

During the introduction, there was much hype about the airport, being compared to world class airports of Singapore and Hong Kong.

For me, this is the smallest airport I have seen which are built in modern times. It’s pretty similar to Kuala Lumpur airport, but have just 7 aircraft hangers for both international and domestic. There are only two baggage belts for International and two for domestic terminals, which are of course, looks different. But, may due to the initial days, it takes an hour to get your bag!!

There are electronic feedback terminals, from which I have given my feedback, but still I am waiting for an acknowledgement through my email.

The airport is way out of the city, far from the civilization, have a steep landing angle (33 degrees) and very expensive. But its cosy, tidy and world class. The good thing is that its just the first phase of construction. Looking forward to see a ‘Aerotropolitan’ which spreads like a wild fire from the airport area!

Tuesday May 13, 2008 - 07:57pm (ICT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Banda Aceh 803rd Anniversary
Banda Aceh 803rd Anniversary magnify

Banda Aceh city celebrated its 803rd Anniversary. There were week long celebrations starting from Elephant Ride by the Governor of Aceh.

The most interesting thing is the ‘Fashion Show’. Since it’s a conservative area, all the women need to cover their head, arms and feet. So the girls in the fashion show were dressed beautifully with out violating any dress code. The head is covered with beautiful throne made out of flowers, and they look quite pretty. The girls are students of Senior High School.

Tuesday May 13, 2008 - 07:54pm (ICT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Water Pressure et.,al;
When the water flows through the pipe, it requires sufficient pressure which is created by the elevation difference between the inlet and outlet. If the difference in elevation between the inlet and the out let is more, the water pressure will be high.

High water pressure is required to keep the pipe free from algae, silt and debris, thus prevents clogging. High pressure also increases the velocity of water, and will prevent air locks etc.,

But what do you do when you don't have the luxury of sufficient difference in elevation? that means when you have to transport water from one place to another which is in similar height?

We are exactly having the same problem here. The elevation difference between the source and the distribution point is merely 10 meters. 6 meters will be lost in building a filter and reservoir, while another 3 meters is a head loss bringing down the effective elevation difference to 1 meter. That means, water may or may not flow!

The first issue is to reduce elevation losses due to the construction of filter and reservoir. We have gained 70 cm height by building a dyke across the spring, and installed collection chamber 25 cm above the zero level. We have replaced 'slow sand filter' with 'sand screen filter' which is 25 cm below the collection chamber. We also have decreased the height of the water tank from 4 meters to 2 meters, maintaining the same volume. So, the total elevation loss till here is only 2 meters.

The second issue is headloss. Head loss is the loss of water pressure due to the friction when the water travels from one end to the other. It depends on the type of pipe, the length of pipe, the diameter, the number of bends, joints etc.,

To minimize the head loss, we have increased the diameter of the pipe to 160 mm, used GI pipe which has less friction and used the shortest but costly route to reduce the length. This brought down the headloss to 0.88 meters. Now we have elevation difference of 7.1 meters which is great!

Wednesday February 27, 2008 - 08:09am (ICT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments

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