Master of Science By Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/13944

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Browsing Master of Science By Research by Author "Bandara, JMSJ"

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    Estimating travel time for un-signalized two lane highways in Sri Lanka
    Galappaththi, GS; Bandara, JMSJ
    Travel time estimation is an important parameter in effective transport planning, quality maintenance, and traffic management. Even though several models are available worldwide for travel time estimation from simple road network to a complex transport network, local availability of such methods are lacking mainly due to the inadequacy of research, data and resources. Travel time along a particular route is associated with several factors including land use type, geography, weather, road condition, traffic flow, road geometry. One or a combination of these factors can cause variation in travel time and the effect from each parameter can change with the land use activities in the area. The objective of this research is to develop a relationship to estimate the travel time for road links to monitor the travel time and of two lane highways without signalized intersections in Sri Lankan context, by assessing the correlation between land use type and the travel time along the road. Two lane road sections of three national highways in Sri Lanka; Peliyagoda-Puttalam road (A03), Colombo-Kandy road (A01), Ambepussa-Trincomalee road (A06) were considered for this study to associate the different land use types, different vertical and horizontal alignments and its correlation with vehicle travel times. Continuous travel time data along the roads was collected during daytime using GPS (Global Positioning System) data loggers. Road was sectioned according to the land use type. Multivariate stepwise regression was used to develop the relationship between the land use type and the travel time. Land use data showed significant positive correlation with the travel time data. One travel time estimation model for three leg un-signalized intersections and four models for travel time estimation for different four land use types, commercial, residential present on both side, residential present on one side and cultivation for the stretch of the road were successfully developed with model fit more than 69% and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of more than 38%
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    Evaluating disaster resilience of transportation infrastructure using GIS
    (2015-09-16) Prabath, WAK; Bandara, JMSJ
    Almost countries around the world have experienced any types of catastrophic natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, magnificent earthquakes, landslides, floods, droughts, cyclones, tornados, snow /sand storm, coastal erosion and tsunami. Hundreds of thousands of lives, property and physical infrastructures, including with transportation system & its infrastructure i.e. highways, railways, ports & air ports are caused to overwhelm, due to such these types of disasters. Traditional reconstruction practices, as a “post-disaster resilience strategy” is an extra burden to the economies of the countries. Application of modern technological strategies, on disaster resilience practices, as a “pre- disaster resilience strategy”, is behaving on conceptual stage among the 3rd world, developing countries, while the developed countries are on its testing and utilizing stage in micro / macro levels. Hence an efficient pre-disaster resilience assessment process should be developed, especially for the transportation system in the developing countries, based on up to date technology. All physical and demographic information that is related to the factors affecting disaster risk on transportation infrastructure such as terrain, soil condition, drainage pattern, weather pattern land use, population which is available in a scattered manner, has not been analyzed in an integrated manner to identify the disaster possibility on transport infrastructure. Identification of disaster resilience of existing and proposed transportation infrastructure will be very useful to minimize impacts due to any natural disaster. The main objective of this research is to develop a methodology, which helps to build up a systematic tool to identify the possible risk areas, on transportation infrastructure, based on the information available, using ArcGIS software. The initial step of the methodology of this research is, based on disaster records and relevant data, which were gathered from the responsible institutes, online journals and research papers, library & field surveys, as the data collecting phase. Along with the literature survey relevant data such as disaster records, together with floods and landslides data, land use pattern, soil, geographical & climatic data, demographic information will be collected and to prepare a GIS database. By using world famous frequency estimation methods, i.e. Gumbel’s , Weibul’s, Gringroatan’s, Hanzen’s, Blayerd’s, the flood return periods were calculated. By using simple statistics, the flood gauge heights, corresponds to the different flood return periods were defined. The flood and landslide risks were identified in order to the given parameters, by the responsible institutes; and ranked them for analyzing purposes. Finally, by integrating the flood and landslide risk ranks, using a program, written in VB, the total disaster risk, of a place, area, could be identified, and produced the results in map media, by using the ArcGis software. 10 km circle area, covers with 314.28 km2, around the Ratnapura town, in the Ratnapura sub catchment of Kalu River, has been selected as the pilot site to do the cause study. After the application of the defined methodology to the pilot site, the results were obtained as, 58.1%, (182.4381 km2 out of 314.28km2 pilot site) is belonging to Very low (or No risk) risk area, while other Low risk, Moderate risk and High risk areas were 20.9% (65.7067 km2), 19.3% (60.75185 km2) and 1.7% (5.262446 km2) respectively. And all the inundation areas correspond to flood return periods, and major risk areas of flooding and landslides were produced by using ArcGIS software.
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    Framework for selecting pavement types for low volume provincial roads
    (2018) Gamage, DE; Bandara, JMSJ
    Low volume Roads are those that serve the daily social and economic needs of the locality. In developing countries, the main problem with low volume roads which are managed by local authorities is the lack of funding for maintenance and resources. The funds allocated to local authorities are largely insufficient to maintain low volume road network at good condition. Fund allocation can be optimized to achieve better overall network performance if the decision making can be supported by up to date information of the road network condition. Road roughness information is very useful for road agencies because it can be used to assess the road condition and be used in decision making process for maintenance planning and programming. But existing measurement technologies to measure road roughness like profilometer are very expensive and difficult to use with the prevailing constraints in the local road agencies. The development of smartphones with 3-Axis accelerometer allows it to take acceleration measurements in m/s2 along each of x, y, z axes. In this research regression analysis was used to two find a relationship between roughness value (IRI) obtained from profilometer and resultant acceleration obtained from an android application called Androsensor. According to the results Resultant acceleration has a linear relationship with road roughness (IRI) and Engineers can use this relationship to estimate road surface condition based on accelerometer readings. In developing countries planning decisions on maintenance and decisions on selecting pavement type are mostly taken based on feedback from local communities and subjective judgement made by the authority due to significant political and other interferences. Therefore it has been become the trend in the recent past in Sri Lanka to pave low volume roads in asphalt all over the country regardless of the traffic volume and the required condition of the road. Although asphalt roads has it’s many advantages in the point of view of the road user, when analysing the effective cost comparisons of life cycle cost this may not be the most suitable method available for some roads considering the limited funds available. Therefore suitable framework should be developed as a primary step to providing the context and a methodology by which pavement options may be assessed and selected for low volume roads. This research presents a methodology to select suitable pavement type for low volume roads in Sri Lanka. The main factors considered for framework are Traffic volume, Traffic composition, Land use, connectivity, terrain and weather.