This study investigated the impact of three different thermal scenarios on the physical-mechanical stability and fracture characteristics of granite, a widely accepted and prominent rock source for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The Closepet Batholith granite samples were exposed to three distinct heating scenarios, namely, direct (thermal shock), sequential (progressive heating), and cyclic heating (thermal stimulation), with a target temperature of 500˚C representing different thermal regimes in the EGS environment. The experimental results exposed that the cyclic heating induced a slighter damage in the tested granite compared to other heating programs, showing the potential of thermal stimulation for EGS. The other heating programs induced severe mechanical degradation, primarily with the formation of a wider microcrack network, and the cyclic heated samples showed more microcracks, confirmed from petrographical and SEM images. The Acoustic Emission (AE) datasets revealed that heating cycles induced a prolonged, unstable crack propagation zone due to the formation of a finer microcrack network, favouring permeability evolution. The RA-AF results highlighted the dominance of shear cracks in all the samples, irrespective of thermal conditions. Additionally, the diminished global b-value (0.64) supported thermal stimulation opportunities with the cyclic heating, compared to severe damage induced by sequential thermal treatment (0.89) and direct heating (0.86). These results underscore that heating regimes may mitigate the seismic risk associated with thermal stimulation, favouring sustainable energy generation through enhanced geothermal systems.
The pursuit of sustainable methods to improve the load-settlement performance of foundation beds has gained considerable attention in recent years. Locally sourced, bio-based materials like coir and jute have proven effective as reinforcement materials. Few studies have examined the feasibility of bio-based materials as infill materials and their impact on the performance of foundation beds reinforced with geocells, despite their potential as sustainable alternatives in geotechnical applications. Therefore, the novelty of this investigation is to explore the combined advantages of coir geocell mattresses and coconut shell pieces as infill in enhancing the sand beds’ load-settlement characteristics through a set of plate load tests. Geocoir cell-reinforced and unreinforced sand beds were created in a 1000 × 1000 × 1000 mm testing tank with a sustained relative density of 70
An appropriate stoping sequence is crucial in underhand mining to maintain stope stability, reduce displacement, limit stress buildup, and enhance ore recovery. This study examines four stoping sequences continuous, inverted pyramid, primary–secondary, and double inverted pyramid to evaluate their effects on the stability of cemented paste fill (CPF) stope backs. A parametric analysis was conducted to assess the influence of key factors, including plug height, rock mass deformation modulus, and mining depth, on CPF performance. A total of 144 numerical models were developed using FLAC3D continuum modelling, incorporating the Mohr–Coulomb elasto-plastic model to evaluate CPF deformation and failure mechanisms. A comparative analysis was performed based on induced displacements in the CPF stope back, stresses developed within the paste fill plug, yielding in the CPF stope back, and the stability of adjacent stoping blocks. Statistical analysis using ANOVA was employed to interpret the modelling results and identify the most effective stoping sequence. Based on extensive numerical modelling and statistical evaluation, the inverted pyramid sequence is identified as the most suitable stoping sequence for underhand mining. This conclusion is supported by validation of the numerical results with field observations obtained from total earth pressure cells (TEPC) and multi-point borehole extensometers (MPBX). The close agreement between field measurements and numerical results demonstrates the reliability of the modelling approach. However, further field-scale implementation is recommended to strengthen the findings regarding the optimal stoping sequence. Overall, the results contribute to the optimization of stoping strategies, improvement of stope stability, and enhancement of overall mining efficiency. Optimal stoping sequences were examined under different influencing parameters to evaluate their effects on stope performance. Noticeable Variations in vertical displacements were observed in the cemented paste fill (CPF) across for four stoping sequences. The results indicated that increasing mining depth intensifies the stresses developed within the paste fill and surrounding rock mass. In contrast, a higher rock modulus reduces stress concentration in the cemented paste fill due to the greater confinement provided by the stiffer rock. Increase the paste fill plug height up to 9 m significantly improves the stability of underground excavations; however, beyond 9 m (up to 25 m), the improvement becomes marginal. Hence, a plug height of approximately 9 m is considered optimal based on the numerical modelling results. Based on the detailed numerical modelling and statistical analysis, the study recommends the most appropriate stoping sequence for different mining depths, rock deformation modulus, and paste fill plug heights.
This research describes the design and development of an attachable electric wheelchair that improves the performance of a traditional wheelchair by incorporating electric propulsion and advanced control mechanisms. The device operates in three independent modes: joystick, application, and voice controlled. We developed the prototype design on SolidWorks and prepared the attachable structure using metal sheets, assembling the parts through gas and electrode welding techniques. The main components include an Arduino Uno microcontroller, an ESP32 wireless module, a BLDC hub motor, and a linear actuator intended for steering. Testing experiments showed that the prototype can support users with different weights, functioning smoothly and reliably. The modular electric wheelchair achieves significantly lower production costs than conventional electric wheelchairs currently available in the market while integrating capabilities absent from the currently available products.
The DIarization and Speech Processing for LAnguage understanding in Conversational Environments - Medical (DISPLACE-M) challenge introduces a conversational AI benchmark focused on understanding goal-oriented, real-world medical dialogues collected in the field. The challenge addresses multi-speaker interactions between healthcare workers and seekers characterized by spontaneous, noisy and overlapping speech across Indian languages and dialects. As part of the challenge, medical conversational dataset comprising 25 hours of development data and 10 hours of blind evaluation recordings was released. We provided baseline systems within a unified end-to-end pipeline across 4 tasks - speaker diarization, automatic speech recognition, topic identification and dialogue summarization - to enable consistent benchmarking. System performance is evaluated using established metrics such as diarization error rate (DER), time-constrained minimum-permutation word error rate (tcpWER), and ROUGE-L. During this evaluation (Phase-I), 12 teams, across the globe, actively participated pushing the baseline systems on these metrics. However, even with a 6-8 week dedicated effort from various participants, the task is shown to be substantially challenging, and the existing systems are significantly short of healthcare deployment readiness.
