Plates are common structural elements use in several engineering applications and are subjected to different types of loads, including acoustic excitations. The first satisfactory theory of bending plates is associated with Navier and later Kirchhoff. These theories nevertheless, are deficient as they do not take into account the influence of transverse shear forces on the deformation of plates. Consequently, this work explicitly established a refined plate equation, which considers the effect of shear deformation in line with Vasil’ev approach. The differential equation of plates with shear effect was solved for all edge simply supported (SSSS) condition subjected to uniformly distributed load using orthogonal polynomial method. Numerical solutions in the present study are compared to Navier’s solution based on Kirchhoff’s hypotheses which gives an insignificant percentage difference for membrane plates (-00.308% for h = 0.05m) and thin plates (00.260% for h = 0.15m). However, it is also observed that the percentage difference between the present study and Kirchhoff’s hypotheses is high for fairly thick plates (04.172% for h = 0.40m) due to incorporation of share deformation in the solution. The result presented shows good approximation for analyses of fairy thick and thick Isotropic rectangular plates.

Purpose: Quality of the service and effectiveness of service operations system are considered as important aspects of achieving the customers' satisfaction of any service organization. The goal of this research is to see how the quality of inland transportation services affects passenger happiness. The research was exploratory in nature, and factor analysis was utilized to determine the most important elements influencing passenger satisfaction with service quality. Passengers will be disappointed to learn that there is no canteen available. The rest of the launch terminal is in good shape. We also made some suggestions for improvements that would boost passenger happiness. Research methodology: SEM methodology has been extensively employed in research to study the causal links. SEM methodology has grown increasingly common in-service quality measurement study. It is hypothesized that socio-economic as well as launch service factors affect the maritime passenger vessel SQ. Results: This study makes empirical contributions to hospitality and tourism marketing literature especially in the way the ferry service can be upgraded. The results obtained via the definition of fuzzy number and linguistic level together with their membership functions as methods to measure service quality. The results also help the ferry company to better understand how the customers view their services. Limitations: During the data collection phase of this study, some unanticipated issues arose, causing the study to be postponed. The following are some of the issues: The personnel at the launch terminal were not particularly cooperative. Passengers and employees were uncooperative when it came to replying. Due to a time constraint, data for a single day was obtained; nevertheless, for an accurate data result, data for the entire year must be obtained. Contribution: The findings of this investigation will contribute to a better understanding of Launch SQ. The most crucial aspect is that it connects passenger demand to Launch SQ. Individual observations are used to generate the results in this thesis. The identification of key SQ variables that influence overall SQ can surely aid in improving SQ with low resources. The analysis yielded the following recommendations.

Crack formation and propagation in reinforced concrete members is complex. It involves various mechanisms and parameters related to the interaction between concrete and reinforcement, the geometry of structural members, type of loading, and support conditions. These factors can be controlled and adjusted to some extent only. On the other hand, these deterministic factors are all superimposed by a certain level of randomness owing to the fluctuations of material parameters and the heterogeneous composition of concrete. Nevertheless, the process of cracking and the resulting crack systems have been widely studied during the years, striving to create physically transparent models that could predict the structural behavior with greater accuracy. Considering the importance of flexure and shear failure influences on strength of concrete, percentage of steel and stirrups of RC beam, a finite element (FE) modeling that focuses on crack initiation and pattern is presented in this study. Nonlinear three dimensions finite element analysis (FEA) of RC beam capable of appropriately modeling the concrete stress-strain behavior, tensile cracking, and compressive damage of concrete and indirect modeling of the steel-concrete bond is performed using ABAQUS to investigate the ultimate load, beam displacements, and cracking pattern. The concrete damage plasticity is applied to the numerical model as a distributed plasticity over the whole geometry. The objective of this study is to predict failure and crack development in the concrete model using ABAQUS for static load in M30 grade beam with different reinforcement configurations and results have been compared with the experimented sample.

Waste stabilization ponds (WSP) are used extensively to provide wastewater treatment throughout the world. A review of the literature indicates that, understanding the hydraulics of waste stabilization ponds is critical to their optimization, the research in this area has been relatively limited and that there is a poor mechanistic understanding of the flow behavior that exists within these systems. This explains why there is no generally acceptable model for predicting its performance. The two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model developed in this study was extensively tested on the waste stabilization pond located in the campus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka which was used as the field pond and also on a laboratory scale waste stabilization pond obtained from literature. Although the model may be solved by several methods, this research was limited to computational method; numerical solution using finite difference method was used in solving the two-dimensional partial differential equations at steady state conditions. In order to validate the quality of the model, its results were compared with the experimental data from the field and the lab-scale ponds. The results obtained were encouraging, prediction of pond performance with measured values shows that correlation coefficient of 0.82 was obtained, representing an accuracy of 82%. The 2-D model was then used in series of investigative studies such as; effect of single inlet and outlet structures at different positions in the pond, effect of multiple inlet and outlets on the pond’s performance, variation of pond performance with depth, effect of short-circuiting on pond treatment efficiency, effect of baffles on pond performance using laboratory-scale pond data and comparison with tracer studies. In all, the results agree with literature.