All About Construction

Types of Wind Turbines Engineers at Iowa State University think concrete columns could be the key to building taller, higher-powered wind turbines. By making the switch from steel to concrete, it's thought that the upper limit of turbine column height could be raised from 80 m (262 ft) to over 100 m (328 ft). Steel Wind Turbines "We have definitely reached the limits of steel towers," says Sri Sritharan, Wilson Engineering Professor at Iowa State in a University press release. "Increasing the steel tower by 20 meters will require significant cost increases and thus the wind energy industry is starting to say, 'Why don't we go to concrete?'"          Concrete Wind Turbine Construction To answer that question the engineers used the hydraulic testing equipment at the University's Structural Engineering Research Laboratory to see if hexagonal sections of concrete column could withstand 150,000 lb (68,000 kg) of lateral load, ...

Large shell structures made of concrete or stone are hardly ever built any more. The reason is that their construction requires large, expensive supporting structures. At the Vienna University of Technology, a completely new construction method has been developed, which does not require any timber structures at all: a flat concrete slab hardens on the ground, and then an air cushion below the plate is inflated, bending the concrete and quickly forming a sustainable shell. Even large event halls could be built this way. In Vienna, a first experimental structure has now been built using the new method. "It is similar to an orange peel, which is regularly cut and then flattened out on the table," says Professor Johann Kollegger. "We do it the other way around, starting with a flat surface and then bending it to a shell." Johann Kollegger and Benjamin Kromoser (TU Vienna) have developed the new construction technique, which has now been successfully tested on the...

Hydro Power Project Financing Scenario in India – A Case Study on Hydro Power Projects in India Abstract Although India has 1,50,000 MW Hydro Potential, but hardly 30,000 MW has been developed so far. Initially Government of India has been funding the development of Hydro Project from their budgetary support only. In 90s Government of India offered the various hydro sites for development for Private Sector. Although 20 years have been passed but there is a not significant addition in Hydro development took place in India. Over the years hydro power projects have proven that it is the most cost-effective power projects for commercial scale hydro power generation in country like India. However, the question must be asked why such a slow growth has taken place in the development of hydro power projects inspite of enormous potential available in India. So far Hydro Power Projects of 37367 Mw as on December 2010 have been installed with an investment of Rs.1500 billion in de...