This paper outlines the findings of a laboratory-based study to investigate the properties and undrained flow failure behavior of East Coast Sand (ECS). ECS is a commonly encountered coastal deposit from the upper North Island of New Zealand. This work aims to derive soil parameters for an advanced constitutive soil model (NORSAND) to enable predictive analyses of flow failure potential using the critical state framework. The emphasis in the study is placed on the undrained strength behavior under static, triaxial compressive loading conditions at confining pressures in the range of typical engineering interest and for a range of soil densities considered in loosely deposited sands common to nearshore marine and estuarine environments. The research objective of establishing the basic soil properties and intrinsic advanced geomechanical properties of ECS from Auckland was achieved through laboratory experiments and matching simulations for five different aspects of its undrained behavior under static loads. It was shown that loosely deposited ECS within mean effective stresses ranging between 50kPa and 200kPa can be susceptible to expensive flow failures of structures built on or with them. Therefore, the re-engineering of ECS by adequate soil improvement is required when used in earthworks.

Flexible pavement is a multilayered structure constructed in layers. In order to ensure proper bonding such that a pavement behaved monolithically, tack coat is often applied. The developed pavement interface bond strength is therefore paramount in governing the overall performance of pavement serviceability. The present work reviews the current state of pavement interface bond strength quantification mechanisms, and the devices developed based on the mechanism. Related accessible literatures are collected and analyzed to compile the characteristics of each bond testing devices and evaluated for the capabilities and test performance. The investigation reveals 3 testing mechanisms incorporating shearing (pushing), tensile (pulling) and torsioning (twisting). However, shearing test seems to be the most popular device adopted to investigate the bond strength between two interfaces in contact, utterly due to the simplicity of the test setup. For tensile mechanism, the developed devices are generally portable and are mostly used to examine the tack coat quality. Finally, the device with torsional mechanism is not so popular as compared to the aforementioned mechanism. Nonetheless, it is developing steadily with the continuous research.

The Sultan Ibrahim Reservoir located at Gunung Pulai catchment area was previously managed by the Singapore’s Public Utilities Board before the Board handed over the reservoir to Johor State Government under current management of the Syarikat Air Johor. At the present time, the Syarikat Air Johor is operating a Gunung Pulai Water Treatment Plant consisted of two main plants, i.e. Water Sedimentation Plant and Water Filtration Plant for treating raw water from the reservoir before supplying to the consumers. However, the integrity of water treatment plant’s structure should be checked due to several cracks were observed, and moreover the structure was built over more than 90 years. The formation of the cracks in the Gunung Pulai Water Treatment Plant may be induced by movement of the sloping area to the south-east of Water Sedimentation Plant. The calculated Factor of Safety (FOS) via sensitivity analysis for cross sections of original slope indicates any decrease in friction angle and/or cohesion strength or increase in horizontal seismic load will further cause instability on slope. Also, the results of Load-Deformation analysis on cross sections of original slope show significant vertical displacement and horizontal displacement on the bottom and both sides of sedimentation tanks, respectively. The results indicate applied structural and water loads significantly affect deformation at both vertical and horizontal directions which could have contributed to FOS < 1 in slope stability analysis.

A converted trailer-based peanut dryer was tested to determine its suitability and performance for drying biomass materials. These small-scale drying devices are capable of transporting, storing and dry biomass after harvest. Corn stover was dried from a range of initial moisture content of 14 to 31% down to 6%. Corn cobs were dried from 22% to 9% moisture content. Based on the test results, the energy requirement of the trailer is very high. Among the tests, test 12/2/2009 (Half load stover) was found to be the test with the highest energy requirement and Test 11/17/2009 (Full load cobs) required the least amount of energy. Air leaks and environmental conditions greatly influenced the energy requirements of the system. In the trailers present state, it was able to dry biomass adequately; however design modifications are needed to solve handling and logistical issues. Recommended modifications were listed based on the results and observations from the experiment. These modifications apply to the three main operational categories of the drying process: loading, drying and unloading. With these modifications in place, it is projected that drying efficiency and handling issues can be improved. Based on the experiment, bulk handling of biomass is a pertinent issue for its overall acceptance. Material properties of biomass such as friction coefficient are essential for designing machines and equipments that can improve processing efficiency. A method to determine the friction coefficient of corn residue was developed based on procedures used for grain. The method was capable of determining static and dynamic friction coefficient of corn harvest residues on different types of surfaces. HDPE and oak was found to be the material with the smallest and highest static friction coefficient respectively. This result was also true for the dynamic friction coefficient. 1 CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2. DRYING BIOMASS IN A SEMI-TRAILER DRYER