SNOW CLEARING / REMOVAL DURING WINTER SEASON

SNOW CLEARING / REMOVAL DURING WINTER SEASONS

The traditional system of handling snow.

A small city like Halifax has a budget of 20 million dollars just for clearing up the snow on its roads and pedestrian pathways. The budget for repairs of roads is another 10 million. They use giant trucks with wide ploughs for pushing & piling up the snow from the center of the roads onto the two edges & pedestrian paths. Basically we are spending energy & money on displacing the snow in multiple sweeps from the roads onto the side walks first. In the next attempt we try and clear up a narrow path on the sidewalks by displacing the piled up snow the second time, using mini Bobcats with ploughs.

When it snows continuously or in quick secession for three or four occasions, then we have a major problem, because we run out of space on our over stocked sidewalks to pile up the additional snow. In the mean time the first snow has hardened up into solid ice to make matters worse.

The new innovative proposed system of handling snow.

This innovative system is proposing the use of the highly under utilised fire fighting pipeline network & salty sea water, to wash away the snow from the roads. The extensive pipeline network happens to be laid out all along the main roads. Minor modifications will be required to pump in the sea water instead of the regular treated water.

It is also proposed to fix up special purpose nozzles on every hydrant along the roads to spray a shower of salty water on to full width of the road including the sidewalks to wash away the falling snow as it is falling down. The special purpose nozzles/jets will additionally sway left and right to cover a large area of the road up to the half of the next hydrant. This methodology will ensure that every inch of our road is cleared up of the falling snow. Hopefully the salty water spray will absorb the falling snow flakes before they touch the ground and turn them into “rain water”. 

The special purpose nozzles will function / operate at a predetermined pressure, which can be easily controlled at the pumping station control room. Once the pressure is reduced the water flowing from the nozzles stop automatically to conserve the amount of water supply & energy.

Fortunately, the layout of this township is hilly and strategically located on the sea coast. In many locations the ocean creeps into the towns most populated areas.  The flow of salty water from higher regions will additionally assist in sweeping the deposited snow in lower regions. This way we will have tackled the snow only once, the first time as it should be done. 

Advantages & Savings. 

The extensive damages due to the shearing force of heavy ploughs to the roads will be totally eliminated. The additional cost of repairs to these damaged roads will also be zero. The inconvenience caused to the public on account of delays because of rush hour repairs will be mitigated too.

The huge cost of owning and operating the gigantic fleet of ploughs and Bobcats will be minimized to a great extent. The winter parking ban of vehicles on streets can be lifted now for the benefit of public.

It is estimated that the government can save up to at least 15 million dollars annually, if not more. The cost of minor modifications and new nozzles on every hydrant is only a one-time cost which will be recovered in the very first year alone. A pilot study must surely be done on a small area of the township to prove the effectiveness of this out of the world idea.  Good luck.  

Rohit Khanna – Industrial Engineer.

ACCIDENT PROOF VEHICLES & HIGHWAYS - DESIGNERS DREAM

Accident proof vehicles & highways - designers dream.

This dream concept is based on billiards / snooker table & game.

If highway shoulders / edges could deflect the vehicles back into the road and the vehicles behaved just like the billiards balls, then we have a fool proof system which would be totally accident free. If and when our new vehicles collide, they will never crash into each other but simply get deflected, change their course / direction and keep moving on just like the balls do in our game of snooker / billiards.

Design of new vehicles.

Our new vehicles will be round / circular in shape approximately six feet in diameter for normal mid size cars, going up to eight feet in diameter for luxury cars. The deflecting bumpers encircling the vehicle will be located at fixed predetermined height of say 18 inches to match up with the deflecting shoulders at the sides of the highways. They will be made of reinforced fiber glass or any other suitable material to be decided after prototypes.

Prime mover.

The new vehicles will be powered by compressed air and move forward on jet propulsion concept of the air. No complicated engines or gear boxes & transmissions. The wheels will have 360 degrees of freedom like your office chair. We can have three wheels to begin with and end up with five wheels for greater stability for larger sized vehicles. On impact, with any object or another vehicle the forward propulsion of vehicle/vehicles will shut off automatically and the neutral state will prevail to allow them to come to a gradual halt. 

Drivers View.

The driver of our new vehicles will be perched high up in the center of the semi-spherical glass dome for all round visibility and balance when there is just one occupant in the vehicle which happens to be most of the times. The passenger seats will be slightly lower down, distributed evenly on all sides. No air bags are required in this newest concept. Expensive insurances can be done away with, thus bringing down the overall cost of owning and driving a vehicle.

Author is seeking partnerships to help take off this new concept.

Rohit Khanna – Industrial engineer.

CONSERVATION OF TREATED DRINKING WATER

             CONSERVATION OF DRINKING WATER 

               INDUSTRIAL TOWNSHIPS

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The expansion of township is inevitable with the increase in population and passage of time. The mushroom growth leads to imbalanced civic amenities, like drinking water, sewage, & drains. Therefore every decade or so there is a need to upgrade the civic amenities to meet the growing population demands. Drinking water is the first basic need of a man. Normally additional facilities are added on to the old installations for paucity of funds and the situation managed somehow. This is a case of an Industrial township, where the management felt a need to look into the problems of drinking water supply.

 

OBJECTIVE

To assess the existing capacity on a zero base and redesign the age old systems on a modular basis, with latest technology for the next 20 years.

 

FINDINGS:

 

A)  STANDARD AMOUNT OF WATER NEEDED

 

A realistic approach was adopted to assess the actual needs of water for a family of four persons (Two adults and two children) as follows:

 

Bath	3 gallons/person
Clothes	3 gallons
Toilet	2 gallons
Cooking	2 gallons
Miscellaneous	2 gallons
Total	12 gallons/person
Total for 4 persons	12 x4=48 gallons/day
Wastages at 100%	48 gallons/day
Grand Total	96 gallons/day

 

This norm matches with the highest government norm for a family four -100 gallons/day, for an industrial township.

B)  ACTUAL QUANTITY OF WATER SUPPLIED

The rate of flow from a 15 mm diameter pipe line in a house of the family of four is 7 gallons per minute. The supply hours I day are as follows:

 

5 am - 7 am	120 minutes
11 - 12..30 pm	90 minutes
6 pm - 8 pm	120 minutes
Total	330 minutes

 

Therefore total quantity of water supplied / day is 2400 gallons. This is exactly 24 times the amount of water needed It was a revealing observation leading to an obvious solution to contain the gross wastages.

 

C)  THEFT OF WATER

 

The crime rate in an industrial township is higher than other cities, because of higher purchasing power of the population. The villages and lower income group make illegal taping’s in the rising mains to fulfill their basic needs. The poor workmanship of these tapings leads to double wastages: continuous flow of water to the villages over the surface and undetected leakages at the tapings, below the surface.

 

D)  DILAPIDATED PIPELINES         

 

The water towers and the pipelines delivering the drinking water are 70 years old. Moreover they have been over loaded to cater to the mushroom growth of the township over the decades.

Since this civic amenity is round the  year.  Shutdowns are postponed till a major crisis erupts. This attitude leads to leakages from errored pipes, old valves and joints. The quantity of leakages could well equal the consumption of water supply to the township.

   

E)   LEVEL DIFFERENTIALS LEADING TO POOR PRESSURE

 

This industrial township is undulating and slightly hilly. It has a mix of single storied houses built in 1910's and 1940's as well as multistoried buildings built in l980's and 1990's Therefore on any-one delivery line. The level differential could be as high as 12 meters. The management is supplying 2 hours of water to a multistoried building twice a day simply because the level differential reduces the pressure in delivery line and water keeps over flowing from single storied houses till the multistoried flats have had their fill.

 

F)    OVERFLOWS AT THE WATER TOWERS

 

The over flow for 120 min/day from a house-hold tap, 15 mm diameter pipe at the rate of 7gals/min. would work out to 2 lakh gallons per year. This will cost the corporation $200 per year only. But a normal over flow from a 600 mm diameter pipe at the main water towers at the rate of 2500 gallons per minute for a short period of 10 minutes per day would work out to 91 Lakh gallons per year costing $50,000 per year to the corporation.

 

G)        LEAKAGES AT THE WATER TOWERS

 

The age old delivery lines and their corresponding valves are worn-out heavily. But there is no time available to shut down the system and replace them, when the valves are fully closed. The water still leaks past the gaps up to 10 %. This minor 10 % is seemingly a small loss and can be overlooked, until quantified. So it was done to get the accurate picture. The 10 % loss from a 600 mm delivery pipe line at the rate of 4600 gallons/min works out to 460 gals/min. The total amount of water leaking past the worn-out valve is 5 lakh gallons/day which works out to cost of $11,00,000 per year.

 

H)         ORGANIZATIONAL SET UP AND REPORTING SYSTEM

 

 

The raw water treatment plant is managed by one executive agency whose targets are based on demands of the Industry and township put together. He operates independently with little interaction on the supply and consumption side.

The supply of treated water is looked after by another executive agency whose norms are customer satisfaction first at any cost.  Since whatever demands they make on the treatment plant are met regularly. The need for improvements and savings is not felt, so far. This organizational set up has it draw-backs, No one is held accountable for total costs of the system. For the fear of public reactions and uproar, the improvement plans/ideas are shelved in favour of status quo.

 

 

       RECOMMENDATIONS :

 

1. It is proposed to reorganise the delivery pipeline network, with minor modifications to minimise the level differentials up to one meter only and reduce the supply hours in a tapering fashion – (New law of tapering demand by the author).
2. It is proposed to close the head end valves at the water towers, on these delivery lines by 15 % every 10 minutes interval. This break-through will contain wastages of water up to 40 % without sacrificing the function of supplying water to the customers for a full supply of one hour duration.
3. It is proposed to modernise the delivery pipe line system at the water towers on the common header system, having three distinct but interconnected segments; low pressure segment, medium pressure segment and high pressure segment. Standby valves on this common header will ensure regular maintenance without affecting the water supply activity, which will contain the leakages happening after the supply hours.
4. It is also proposed to motorise the valve opening and closing operations at the water towers from a central control room to optimise the manpower deployment. 
    
5. It is recommended to interconnect the overflows of the three storage tanks at the water towers. The overflow of 'A' would act as inlet to 'B' and the overflow of 'B' would be the inlet to 'C'. This will mean that we continue to fill up tank 'A' only at all times and stop this process when 'C' overflows. This will eliminate the individual operations and individual overflows from the storage tanks, which is substantial.
6. It is recommended to install bore wells in villages and low income group housing to obviate the theft of water and the consequential losses arising out of illegal tapings. It has been found to be very economical to provide a bore well in the long run.
    

 

           CONCLUSION:

 

On completion of these proposals the expected savings / benefits would work out to around $2,000,000/year recurring. The investment level is around $800,000. The ROI is very lucrative. Figures are based on the year of study 1990-91.

 

 

Rohit Khanna – Author of Futuristic designs for manufacturing sector.