Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Dr. Jaykumar Shukla, Dr. Jaymin Patil
Indian Geotechnical Conference - IGC 2019 · Dec 21, 2019
Paper Summary:
To validate the theoretical pile capacity, full scale pile load test is the most common approach. It is often not possible to test the pile up to failure. It was often observed that under the test load the pile does not reach ultimate pile capacity. Hence in such cases extrapolation of load-settlement curve is required to arrive at ultimate load. Various methods were proposed in the past by researchers such as Chin Kondner, Decourt, Davisson, Brinch Hansen etc. to evaluate extrapolated ultimate pile capacity. Data from 14 pile load tests were analyzed using above methods to estimate ultimate pile capacity. Based on the comparison, it has been observed that, each method estimated different values of ultimate load under different test loads and no specific method can be recommended based on accuracy to evaluate the ultimate pile capacity.
Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Dr. Jaymin Patil
Indian Geotechnical Conference - IGC 2019 · Dec 21, 2019
Paper Summary:
The relationship between Standard Penetration Tests (N) and Shear wave Velocity (Vs) was investigated at different Power Plant sites located in West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Bangladesh. This paper presents a development of correlation for all soils between shear wave velocity (Vs) and Standard penetration Test (N).
A total of minimum 30 numbers of boreholes at each site were drilled to a maximum depth of 30.0m with SPT measurements. A total 2 number of Seismic cross hole tests per site were performed. The shear wave velocity was measured through Cross hole test. It was proven that the developed correlation falls within the range of other relations, developed by different researchers worldwide at various sites. A comparison with available relation are also presented. Their validation confirms the relevancy of the results carried though statistical assessment of data.
Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Maunank Modi
Indian Geotechnical Conference - IGC 2021 · Dec 16, 2021
Paper Summary:
To meet the rapidly increasing demand in industrial growth and advancement, a sufficient boost in power generation is the must. To meet this requirement, various power plants are availing the demand of power on pan India basis. The lack of suitable land availability to develop new plants and expansion, leads to the forceful construction of various parts of power plants over ash ponds / ash deposits. Fly ash contains non-cohesive silt sized particles with fair permeability, which makes it susceptible to erosion and liquefaction, if no re-medial measures are taken. The difficult task of encountering the unexpected damages caused to the structures has been envisaged for an existing power plant Flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) project. The difficulties for structures resting over this part of ash deposit with varying depths up to 19.5 m below existing ground level have been taken into consideration by providing Rammed stone column as remedy. Similar ground improvement technique using vibro stone column were adopted in the vicinity in Coal Handling Plant (CHP) of same project in past. For mitigating the phenomenon of liquefaction, various cost effective technical proposals were adopted to improve engineering properties.
Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Vishal Pathak
Deep Foundation Institute DFI-India 2022 · Sep 16, 2022
Paper Summary:
Ground Modification System in terms of Jet Grouting for soil strengthening and mass stabilization was engaged for a power plant project in an international power project, engineered by L&T-S&L. The site Geology consist of cohesionless type of sandy alluvial deposits (silty fine sand) as the main formation. Ground water table is encountered at shallow depth. Geological interpretation is done using soil investigation data along with CPT’s. This paper discusses design and implementation of jet grout technique to improve the mechanical behaviour of soil. To distribute load evenly from superstructure, a layer of growmast (drainage blanket) is laid above jet grout columns. Settlement evaluation is done using Finite element analysis with Plaxis 2D and Settle 3D. In the project, selected equipment foundations are resting on jet-grout columns including vibratory equipment like 144MW Gas Turbine etc. The project has been commissioned in September 2021 and operating with full capacity.
Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Vishal Pathak
Federation of Gujarat Industries (FGI) · Dec 8, 2023
Paper Summary:
Geotechnical engineering plays a key role in all civil engineering projects, since all facilities are built on suitable foundation system on soil/rock or within the sub-surface. Geotechnical engineering is the systematic application of techniques which allows construction on geomaterials, i.e., soil and rock. Despite notable progress in geotechnical engineering, many solutions are still judgemental, which is mainly due to the natural inherent inhomogeneity of soils, unpredictable behaviour under various environmental conditions. Additionally, soils are more sensitive to local environmental conditions compared to other prefabricated building materials such as steel or concrete.
To determine soil properties and ground profile, detailed geotechnical investigation along with geophysical testing like Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW), Seismic Refraction Test (SRT), etc. are employed.
The analysis of ground behaviour, assessment of ground movements, slope stabilization, ground condition improvement, deep excavations, excavation of tunnels / other underground openings and the design of foundations etc. involves application of geomechanics (rock mechanics and soil mechanics) to predict the future behaviours in respect of soil-structure interaction and to assess the serviceability requirements for structural safety.
Selection criteria for foundation majorly depends on two factors, i.e. factors related to ground (soil) conditions and factors related to loads from the structure. Economic feasibility is also another aspect for selection of foundation system. The design and choice of the foundation system is only as good as its execution in the field, hence the choice of foundation should be made keeping in mind the ease with which it can be executed/constructed at the site.
Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Nishant Sohoni, Ishwari Desai
Indian Geotechnical Conference (IGC) - 2024 · Dec 20, 2024
Paper Summary:
The Ministry of Power and the Government of India is installing new units of coal based thermal power plants in the various thermal power stations across India. Bulk material such as coal is being transported to the power plants mainly by railway wagons. The wagons are unloaded on conveyor belts by mechanisms such as wagon tippler and track hopper. For one of the projects in Bihar the scope of work is to construct wagon tippler for unloading coal from railway wagons. As a part of Coal Handling Plant facility, CHP-WTC facility stretch of approximate length of 235m is to be installed at 20.5m depth from natural ground level. A 20.5m deep open cut excavation was envisaged for Wagon Trippler Complex of Coal Handling Plant. Subsoil was characterized as very stiff silty clay followed by clayey silt layer and dense sand layer at the bottom. Water table was observed at 3m from existing ground level. To increase excavation efficiency and to reduce the overall time and cost, dewatering scheme was designed with multi-level deep well point system. Pseudo-static slope stability analysis considering rainfall simulation and sensitivity analysis were carried out to optimize the actual requirement of excavation slope. Soil nail were also provided for few stretch to ensure the global slope stability. This paper describes the information regarding design of open cut excavation, slope stability analysis, dewatering using well point system, soil nailing, etc.
Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Ishwari Desai
Deep Foundation Institute (DFI) - 2025 · Sep 9, 2025
Paper Summary:
Water Purification Plant project in UAE comprises four Potable water tanks of approximate 82.0m diameter. Project site was close to seashore. The subsurface profile was marked by sabkha at the top with variable depth upto 2m followed by upto 3-8m thick overburden, underlain by the calcarenites/ sandstone, interlayered with conglomerate with varying degree of weathering which is further underlain by siltstone at the end. Ground water table was encountered at almost existing ground level. Soil was susceptible to liquefaction under seismic conditions. To mitigate liquefaction and to have high settlement control, ground improvement using Vibro replacement in the form of Stone column was chosen to treat soil upto 10-12m depth. Paper is a testimony that the shallow foundations of the water tanks could be safely constructed despite the challenging soil conditions, enabling the project to proceed without significant risk of soil failure or excessive settlement during seismic events.
Presented by: Shadab A Gadhiya, Ishwari Desai
Indian Geotechnical Conference (IGC) - 2026 · Dec 18, 2026 (Published soon in December’2026)
Paper Summary:
For the construction of a large integrated chemical complex, somewhere in United Arab Emirates (UAE), ground improvement was required. Scope of work with total ground improvement area was around 40,000 m2. Project requirement for the bearing capacity was 250kPA under isolated foundations. Geology from EGL to 15m below, consists of loose sand, followed by Medium and then Dense sand. Mudstone/Gypsum starts after 15m till the end of borehole. Considering the soil conditions and the project requirement, it was pro-posed to carry out the means of improvement by using Controlled Modulus Column (CMC), which aims at creating concrete columns to reinforce poor soils by creating composite soil inclusion. The principle of the design was to define the spacing/number of CMC that limits the settlements of the foundations, and the load transmitted to the CMC to an acceptable limit. Installation of CMC with 0.45m diameter, length varies from 9 to 14m and concrete cube strength 20MPa was used for the improvement. Maximum safe bearing capacity requirement of 250kPa for the isolated footing was successfully achieved theoretically and the same was proposed to be verified by the plate load test as well as zone load test.
Presented by: Akshit Mathur, Akriti Agrawal, Pritam Jash
4th International Conference on Communication, Computing and Industry 6.0 (C216), 2023
Paper Summary:
Line shunt reactors are used in long EHV transmission lines to maintain the voltage profile at the receiving end and to reduce transient over-voltages generated in the line. The magnitude of these transient over-voltages is influenced by the location of the reactors. This paper investigates the effect of the line shunt reactor's location on switching transient over-voltages generated during EHV line energization and re-energization, using PSCAD/EMTDC software. A comparison is made between different case scenarios, and an optimal location is proposed at the end of the paper.
Presented by: Pritam Jash, Rahul Dube
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 2022
Paper Summary:
This paper presents a comprehensive review on the selection of tank types for bus reactors and explores various aspects that influence design criticality.
Presented by: Milan Shah, Samidha B., Achint Kumar, Ankur Soni, Apurva Das, Afsana Begum, Arijit Biswas, and Pritam Jash
7th Conference on Advances & Innovations in Substations, 2019
Organized by the Central Board of Irrigation and Power
Paper Summary:
Substations play a critical role in the power network, and any measures that lead to space optimization, reduction in equipment and O&M costs, ease of operation, increased system reliability, and simplified substation design contribute toward the goal of achieving more with less—maximizing assets while minimizing outages.
This paper highlights best practices in substation design with respect to layouts, control and trip circuits, synchronization circuits, earthing design, and strategies for digitization and optimization. The insights are drawn from real-life experiences gained through the successful engineering of live projects. Case studies are used to explore practical challenges encountered in substation projects and the solutions developed to address them.
Presented by: Milan Shah, Imran Mushtaq, Ketan Vasani, Ankur Soni, and Arijit Biswas
7th Conference on Advances & Innovations in Substations, 2019
Organized by the Central Board of Irrigation and Power
Paper Summary:
This paper presents an overview of protection practices followed in various countries—namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Africa, and India—for the arrangement of protection and control panels in high voltage substations (132kV/220kV/400kV). It discusses the associated advantages, operator flexibility, and physical layout considerations inherent in each approach.
These differing practices significantly impact cost, reliability, redundancy, and execution timelines, and therefore play a critical role in the conceptual design of substations.
Presented By: Hardik Bhavsar & Y D Mishra
NTPC Global Energy Technology Summit 2016, New Delhi, India
Paper Summary:-
The Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules 2015 has new emission standards for coal based thermal power plants. With this amended emission standards, many coal based thermal power plant shall be retrofitted with Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology to meet the emission of sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides. Retrofit of coal based thermal power plant with FGD and SCR technology will pose many challenges with respect to layouts and necessary modifications to existing systems. This paper discusses in brief aspects of retrofit plant like boiler draft, boiler layout, utility consumption, electric auxiliary power, flue liners etc.
Presented By: Jaykumar Shukla & Soumen Sengupta
NTPC Global Energy Technology Summit 2016, New Delhi, India
Paper Summary:-
Old running plants may be founded on the pile foundations and while proposing new plant structures in place of existing plant structures, it is usual perception/assumption that these pile foundations need to be exhumed. However, these piles can be utilized for the new structures either by augmenting its load carrying capacity (i.e. lateral capacity) or by integrating them into new foundations system by performing proper soil structure interaction analysis. This paper discusses methods for enhancing the lateral pile capacity, integration of old and new piles in a pile group, analysis of pile rafts and approaches for settlement reducing piles already existing which can be implemented for new plant structures.
Presented by: Naveen H M & Y D Mishra
Paper Summary:-
Improving heat rate of the coal fired power plants has become a priority for power generation companies. Increases in the cost of coal and strict regulatory environment have led the industry to search for ways to improve the efficiency without compromising the market competitiveness. This paper identifies specific plant thermal cycle systems and equipment where improvements can be done by extracting the maximum benefits while respecting the operational constraints of the system/equipment, and provides estimates of the resulting heat rate improvements.
Presented by: Maulik Patel
Paper Summary:-
The availability of water for power plant is not adequate specifically in some of the areas of the world. In this case air can be used as a source to cool the steam in the condenser instead of water to reduce the water consumption of power plant. The choice of Air Cooled condenser is depending on the scarcity of water rather than the plant performance otherwise water cooled condenser provides better turbine cycle efficiency than the Air Cooled condenser. This paper presents the evaluation of Technical Parameters like steam consumption, heat rate, auxiliary power consumption and land requirement of 660 MW coal fired thermal power plant having air cooled condenser with respect to water cooled condenser.
Presented By: Dipal P Trivedi, Raja I Bagga, Jignesh V Chokshi
4th Nirma University International Conference on Engineering (NUiCONE 2013), India
Fossil fuel (coal and gas) is the prime source of electricity generation in the modern world. Latest technologies are applied in power generation to improve the plant efficiency so as to have reduced emission of greenhouse gases. The increased need for power with thrust on efficiency & clean technology has led to power plant at single location with much larger unit size. Accordingly, from civil/structural engineering perspective, the challenge lies in accommodating larger facilities & heavier foundations in constrained space & various tough terrains……
Presented By: Dipal P Trivedi, Raja I Bagga, Jignesh V Chokshi
3rd Nirma University International Conference on Engineering (NUiCONE 2012), India
Water is one of the most important resource requirements in thermal power plant for process cooling in the condenser, ash disposal, cooling of plant auxiliaries and various other plant consumptive uses. Cooling water requirement in a thermal power plant is a major resource issue for project feasibility as it has tremendous effect on the surrounding environment, population, animals and aquatic life. In a thermal power plant, Cooling Water system is one of the most important power plant systems which ensure continuous supply of cooling water for steam condensation in condenser and other plant equipment. The cooling process can be done either through air or with use of water and both have its merits and demerits. With increased power demand, the sizes of power plant units have increased substantially as compared with previous decades. This has further called for large structures and has imposed many engineering challenges for a power plant engineer. From civil and structural engineering perspective, the CW system involves very large water conveying and retaining structures namely cooling towers, intake and discharge channels, forebay, large underground sump, pump station for housing of large cooling water pumps, large piping between cooling tower and condenser, etc. In order to reduce the capital and running cost of the plant, thrust on economical design is emphasized. This imposes an additional constraint for engineer and it demands meticulous analysis and design to provide optimum techno-commercial solution. The present study describes various types of CW systems, structures and associated engineering challenges faced by structural engineer.
Presented By: B K Basu
12th World Innovation Summit & Expo- Power India 2010 - International Conference, Mumbai, India
Supercritical Technology is an emerging trend in power generation industry. With improved higher steam conditions and the advent of modern super alloys, the Rankine steam cycle has marched into the Super-Critical (SC) region of the coolant and generates thermal efficiencies into 40% plus range at Gross Calorific Value (GCV) of coal. With increase in demand for power, and growing concern about climate change it is imperative that environmentally friendly technologies like Supercritical technology be used for power generation.
Presented By: Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Mitesh Shah & Dominic S. Fernandes
CBIP, CIGRE, India & Doble Engineering Company at Delhi
An overview of some of the critical issues like Generator Transformer sizing criteria, optimisation opportunity in selection of Generator Transformer, issues affecting the selection of large size power transformer, salient requirements and recommendations of Indian and International standards are presented in the paper. The paper also addresses comparative analysis of single 3-phase transformer vs. 3 nos. single phase transformers, layout aspects along with the further course of action to be taken by the plant owner, engineering consultant as well as manufacturers to overcome constraints and difficulties as exists and to improve the overall plant efficiency, plant availability and performance of power generation and transmission system.
Presented By: J V Chokshi & Raja I Bagga
The International Conference on Current Trends in Technology – NUiCONE 2010
Power plants have structures such as storage sheds, pipe rack, steam turbine generator building, service building, diesel generator building, electrical building, compressor building, fire water pump house building, etc. The balance of plant buildings are undertaken in the present study. A non-linear static procedure namely pushover analysis predicts the non-linear static approximation of the response, a structure will undergo, when subjected to dynamic earthquake loading. The pushover analysis considers the individual inelastic component of a structure resisting seismic forces, as well as the behavior of the structure as a whole. The analysis technique is progressive, allowing the engineer to withstand which components should reach threshold before others.
