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This paper aims to study and assess residual strengths of concrete specimen exposed to elevated temperatures by core recovery tests.

The appraisal of concrete structures is typically carried out by means of partially destructive tests such as tests on concrete cores taken from the structure and non-destructive testing.

This paper presents results associated with determination of residual compressive strengths of plain and reinforced concrete elements exposed to elevated temperatures by core recovery test. Physical observations and results of compressive strengths of cores extracted from plain cement concrete, as well as from reinforced concrete beam elements exposed to elevated temperatures, have been presented.

The empirical relations have been proposed between standard cube and core extracted for compressive strength of concretes exposed to elevated temperatures are useful for damage diagnosis.

Concrete in structures is likely to be exposed to high temperatures during fire. The probability of its exposure to elevated temperatures is high due to natural hazards, accidents and sabotages. Therefore, the performance of concrete during and after exposure to elevated temperature is a subject of great importance and interest to the designer. Popular normal strength grades of concrete produced by Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) India, Mangalore have been used in production of test specimens (150 mm cubes), cured and tested by destructive method for gathering data on strength characteristics. Later, these test samples were subjected to elevated temperatures ranging from 100°C to 800°C, in steps of 100°C with a retention period of 2 hours. After exposure, weight losses and the residual compressive strength retention characteristics are studied. Test results indicated that weight and strength significantly reduces with an increase in temperature. Residual compressive strength prediction equations are proposed for normal strength concretes subjected to elevated temperatures.

Concrete is found to undergo degradation when subjected to elevated temperatures during an accidental event, such as fire and lose substantial amount of its original strength. The loss of strength in concrete is mainly attributed to the decomposition of Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C-S-H) and release of chemically bound water, which begins when the exposure temperature exceeds 500°C. When such a concrete is supplied with water and allowed to recure, it is found to recover substantial amount of its lost strength. This work is carried out to investigate the effect of recuring on strength recovery of un-blended and blended concrete specimen (100 mm cubes) subjected to elevated temperatures from 400°C to 700°C, in steps of 100°C, for a retention period of two hours at the designated temperatures. The concrete cubes immediately after exposure were subjected to thermal shock by quenching them in water, and then temperature of thermally shocked concrete is allowed to cool to room temperature. The cooled specimen were then recured in water for 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 56 days and tested for compressive strength recovery. These studies were carried out for Portland Cement (PC) based concrete and Portland & Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (70% PC + 30% GGBS) based concrete (blended concrete), and some interesting results are presented and discussed in this paper.

This study reports the performance of thermally deteriorated concrete with and without fibres. Attempts have been made to find the suitable performance of steel polypropylene (PP) hybrid fibre combination that could significantly enhance the performance of mechanical properties at elevated temperatures.

In this experimental investigation, concrete cubes of 100 mm in size of various compositions were cast and water-cured for 28 days, and later exposed to elevated temperatures of either 200 or 400°C or 600 and or 800°C with a retention period of 2 h. The properties like change in colour and percentage weight loss were evaluated. Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity test was used to obtain qualitative information of strength variation. Residual strength of thermally deteriorated concrete specimen was measured by destructive testing.

Steel fibre volume fraction of 1 per cent improves the compressive strength of concrete in the temperature range of 400 to 800°C. The addition of steel fibre and PP fibre (Mix 3) improves the splitting strength of the concrete at elevated temperature range of 400 to 600°C.

Performance enhancement is observed with hybrid fibres for temperature endurance of concrete.

This paper aims to present nonlinear numerical simulations using the versatile finite element (FE) analysis tool ANSYS and theoretical analysis based on code provisions to assess the load-carrying capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams under two-point monotonic static loadings.

Four quarter-size FE models with load and geometry symmetry conditions were constructed, the load-bearing capacity and associated mid-span deflections at critical points are verified against the full-scale experimental RC beams available in the literature. These developed FE models incorporated the tension stiffening effects and bond–slip behaviour. Theoretical analyses based on Indian standard code IS: 456–2000 and ACI 318–19 were also carried to verify the experimental and numerical predicted moments at critical loading points.

The load-deflection curves predicted through FE models exhibit closer corroboration with the experimental curves throughout the loading history. The contour plots for deflections, concrete principal stresses, reinforcement yield stresses are satisfactorily predicted by the FE models, which reveal the complete information of nonlinear behaviour of RC beams. The developed model well captured the initial and progressive crack patterns at each load increments.

The FE modelling is an efficient, valid and economical tool that is an alternative to the expensive experimental program and can be used to explore, analyse and fully understand the nonlinear response of RC beams under static loadings.

The ultimate moment capacity evaluated based on ACI 318–19 code provision show a better correlation with the experimental data as compared to the IS: 456–2000 code provision. The ultimate loads and associated centre-span deflections predicted by RN-2, RN-3, RB-12 and RB-16 FE model show a discrepancy of 1.66 and –0.49%, –4.68 and –0.60%, –9.38 and –14.53% and –4.37 and 4.21%, respectively, against the experimental results, which reveals that the developed ANSYS FE models predict consistent results and achieved a reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

This paper aims to assess the farming community’s perception on important parameters of climate change and identify major practices and technologies adopted to mitigate the impacts of climate change and their determinants in mountain district of Nepal. Being an agrarian economy and dependent on monsoon rain, the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity and production has been experienced. Different adaptation strategies have been adopted by the communities to cope with the consequences of climate change.

Four village development committees (VDCs) situated in the buffer zone of Langtang National Park of Rasuwa district representing rice, wheat, maize and potato production area was purposively selected for this study. A two-stage sampling technique was adopted for data and information collection. Thirty households from each VDC were randomly selected. Data on the socio-economic and climate change perception were collected using structured questionnaire. A binary logistic regression technique was used to identify the determinants of climate change adaptation technologies and practices.

The farmers’ decisions whether to adopt climate change adaptation technologies are governed by the size of landholding, perceived threat of climate change to food security, education level and gender of the interviewee, perception on the increased incidence of droughts during rainy season and income received from the off-farm sources. In a community where agricultural activity is the dominant means of living, adaptive strategies help to increase the capacity of a farming system to survive external shocks and cope with the consequences.

The assessment of farm-level adaptation strategies and factors influencing their adoption decision is important to formulate policies and design programs. This will also help to recognize adaptation as a tool for managing a variety of risks associated with climate change in agricultural sector.

The case illustrates an entrepreneurial voyage and venture creation and through it helps in identifying the reasons and causes for that venture's failure. It also enables discussion on the importance of planning a venture, more importantly; financing, managing, growing, and ending a venture and on how to avoid the pitfalls that befall such enterprises. This case can be used in Entrepreneurship courses as well as MBA, PGP and Executive Education programmes on Entrepreneurship.

Climate change-related weather events significantly affect rice production. In this paper, we investigate the impact of and interrelationships between agriculture inputs, climate change factors and financial variables on rice production in India from 1970–2021.

This study is based on the time series analysis; the unit root test has been employed to unveil the integration order. Further, the study used various econometric techniques, including vector autoregression estimates (VAR), cointegration test, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and diagnostic test for ARDL, fully modified least squares (FMOLS), canonical cointegrating regression (CCR), impulse response functions (IRF) and the variance decomposition method (VDM) to validate the long- and short-term impacts of climate change on rice production in India of the scrutinized variables.

The study's findings revealed that the rice area, precipitation and maximum temperature have a significant and positive impact on rice production in the short run. In the long run, rice area (ß = 1.162), pesticide consumption (ß = 0.089) and domestic credit to private sector (ß = 0.068) have a positive and significant impact on rice production. The results show that minimum temperature and direct institutional credit for agriculture have a significant but negative impact on rice production in the short run. Minimum temperature, pesticide consumption, domestic credit to the private sector and direct institutional credit for agriculture have a negative and significant impact on rice production in the long run.

The present study makes valuable and original contributions to the literature by examining the short- and long-term impacts of climate change on rice production in India over 1970–2021. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, The majority of the studies examined the impact of climate change on rice production with the consideration of only “mean temperature” as one of the climatic variables, while in the present study, the authors have considered both minimum as well as maximum temperature. Furthermore, the authors also considered the financial variables in the model.

Introduction: The world is passing through a technology explosion phase where one technology is being replaced by another very quickly. Emerging technologies play more important roles in the insurance sector directly or indirectly. These technologies have a high potential to change the insurance paradigm.

Purpose: In this chapter, we discuss emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, blockchain, the internet of things (IoT), mobile technology, predictive analytics, social media, telematics, chatbots, low codes, and drones in the context of the insurance industry.

Methodology: To carry out our analysis, we searched for data using the keywords for each technology from the Web of Science (WoS) coral database. Certain inclusion and exclusion criteria were followed to select the articles for further analysis. R-studio was used for the data analysis and visualisation.

Findings: It was found that the highest number of research articles published are related to big data, followed by AI and social media. The first article on AI in insurance appeared in 1975. Social media is the highest cited new technology, whereas the low codes are the undiscovered paradigm for the insurance sector with no published research. Research on the impact of chatbots, drones, and mobile technology in the insurance industry is still at a nascent stage. We also noticed that the United States is leading the research on emerging technologies in the insurance sector.

Implications: This chapter audits the emerging technologies in the insurance sector and identifies technological areas with the highest, least, or no research, dominant journals, authors, and countries. This holistic overview empowers managers and academicians to decide the future course of action.

This chapter is focused on India's destination marketing strategies that promote religious tourism. It sheds light on the Government of India's initiatives to attract faithful tourists to sacred locations including holy temples and places of interest for spiritual pilgrims. The tourism business in India has gone through numerous phases of growth. This research reveals how the state government and central governments have stepped up their commitment to develop tourism, including religious tourism, on multiple fronts. It confirms that India can be rightly considered as the land of faith, as spirituality and religion are very prominent, as evidenced by its holy temples and landmarks, located in different regions of the subcontinent. In conclusion, it discusses about the challenges for the future, and elaborates on the opportunities related to promoting religious tourism to target faithful pilgrims and other visitors to “Incredible India.”