Current Engineering Letters and Reviews - Current Issue

A structurally strong subgrade is always desirable in pavement construction so as to provide a resilient and durable foundation for the subsequent pavement layers for adequate performance under the given traffic load/volume and environmental conditions. Emphasizing the increased awareness for effective waste recycling and demand for a sustainable construction approach, re-utilizing industrial wastes in pavement subgrade construction can be a viable option. The potential re-utilization of bottom ash (BA), an incombustible by-product generated in huge quantities from coal combustion in thermal power plants, in replacing natural soil in the subgrade construction of pavements will not only limit the extent of disturbance to ecological balance through over-utilization of natural soil but also open an avenue for the reuse of bottom ash.

In this study, an effort was made to study the possible use of different percentage replacement of BA (0 to 60% with an increment of 15%) with natural soil with and without hydrated lime (5% by weight of soil-bottom ash mix) for applications in road subgrade. Laboratory investigations were conducted for basic soil characteristics, compaction properties, and strength evaluation through California bearing ratio (CBR) and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests.

The addition of 5% lime to the soil-bottom ash mixes decreased the plasticity index significantly. The highest MDD and the lowest OMC were found in soil with 45% bottom ash. The CBR results of control soil increased from 6.3% to 137.7% for soil-bottom ash mix containing 45% bottom ash and 5% hydrated lime, and the same combination showed a 104% increase in UCS.

The observed results indicated that the coupled behavior of the bottom ash and hydrated lime treatment has effectively increased the soil's compaction and mechanical strength and its suitability for use in road subgrade construction.

Smart grids have expanded over the last decade, with large-scale smart meter deployments in several regions of the world.

The goal of this perspective is to discuss the social challenges faced by smart grids. While numerous scholarly works have thoroughly examined smart grids from a technical perspective, a noticeable shift has occurred in recent years towards conducting research about the interaction between technology and customers that shows some issues to future deployments.

This study is a review of recent literature on smart grids focused on studies related to the social acceptance of these networks, which has been published in the last five years.

The review of studies shows that discussion about smart grids has been traditionally focused on technology, paying no attention to social issues.

It is essential to understand the motivations behind public perceptions of smart grids in order to enhance and extend awareness campaigns in the short and medium term, as without social support, the expectations placed on smart grids may be severely limited.

Simulation of cadmium telluride (CdTe)-based solar cells (CdTe/C2N/SnO2) using Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator-1D (SCAPS-1D) has been presented in this article.

C2N was introduced as a buffer layer, SnO2 was introduced as a window layer, and CdTe was introduced as an absorber layer.

The impact of the thickness of the CdTe, SnO2, and C2N layers, the defect density and carrier concentration of the CdTe layer, and the impact of ambient temperature were analyzed.

The optimized solar cell demonstrated a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 22.41% with an open circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.07 V, a short circuit current density (JSC) of 23.59 mA/cm², and an FF of 88.51%, indicating huge promise in low-cost solar energy harvesting.