The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami triggered significant destruction to housing and related infrastructures across various coastal districts of south India. Research shows that tsunami reconstruction projects in Kerala experienced different degrees of success and failure. On this background, this study explored factors that contributed to the successful implementation of tsunami housing projects in Kerala by (1) consolidating various critical success factors (CSFs) for post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) projects under “project management success traits” through content analysis of existing literature; (2) deriving a conceptual model that envisages project success in PDR contexts; and (3) assessing the impacts of those success traits on tsunami housing projects using confirmatory factor analysis. Necessary data were gathered through a survey of various stakeholders involved in tsunami reconstruction projects in Kerala using structured questionnaires. The research revealed that PDR project success is attributed to critical dimensions of project management such as institutional mechanisms, reconstruction strategies, project implementation, and stakeholder management. A conceptual model with the interplay of project success, success traits, as well as their CSFs identified the project management actions that must be monitored during reconstruction. Since the project management approach is widely recognized for PDR projects, these success traits hold huge potential for effective organization and management of housing reconstruction projects. The study also helped to identify project management traits that need improvements for the successful implementation of post-disaster housing projects in Kerala. Thus the research findings can serve as a foundational study for formulating project management strategies appropriate to PDR projects in Kerala.

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A numerical study is carried out for natural convective flow and heat transfer in a two-dimensional enclosure with centrally located sinusoidal thin partition for a range of Rayleigh numbers, partition heights and aspect ratios. The partition is oriented parallel to the two vertical isothermal walls and the other surfaces are insulated. The flow and temperature distributions are taken to be two-dimensional. Transport equations are modeled by a stream function-vorticity formulation and are solved numerically by finite-difference approach. Comparisons with previously published numerical and experimental works are done and found to be in excellent agreement. The Rayleigh number varies from 103 to 106 and aspect ratio from 0.5 to 5. The results are presented for different fluids in the form of streamlines, vectors and isotherm plots. The variation of local Nusselt number over the sinusoidal partition and isothermal wall provide valuable insight into the physical processes.

A two-dimensional single-phase natural convective heat transfer in a cavity with centrally located thin partition utilizing nanofluids has been numerically analyzed. The nanofluid used, which is composed of aluminum nanoparticles in suspension of Benzene, was provided at various solid volume fractions. The study is carried out numerically for a range of Rayleigh numbers, solid volume fractions, partition heights, and aspect ratios. Regions with the same velocity and temperature distributions are identified as a symmetry of sections. One-half of such a rectangular region is chosen as the computational domain, taking into account the symmetry about the thin partition. The governing equations are modeled by a stream function-vorticity formulation and are solved numerically by finite-difference schemes. Comparison with previously published numerical and experimental results showed excellent agreement. It is demonstrated that the partition height has a strong effect on both the heat transfer rate and the flow pattern. Results are presented in the form of streamlines and isotherm plots. The variation in the local Nusselt number along the thin partition provides valuable insight into the physical processes. A new correlation is proposed for the heat transfer studies in a wide range of thermal and geometric parameters.