Institutional-Repository, University of Moratuwa
Welcome to the University of Moratuwa Digital Repository, which houses postgraduate theses and dissertations, research articles presented at conferences by faculties and departments, university-published journal articles and research publications authored by academic staff. This online repository stores, preserves and distributes the University's scholarly work. This service allows University members to share their research with a larger audience.
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Recent Submissions
item: Thesis-Full-text
The Implications of adopting Eurocodes for designing disaster resilient buildings in Sri Lanka
(2025) Pathirana, HA; Jayasinghe, MTR; Lewangamage, CS; Weerasuriya, AU; Fernando, PLN
Sri Lanka has prioritized designing disaster-resilient buildings and evaluating the degree of disaster-resilience of the existing buildings due to the challenges posed by natural and man-made hazards. This approach challenges the common practice of the Sri Lankan construction industry to use British Standards as its industrial standards. Since the British Standards had been replaced by Eurocodes, Sri Lanka has started using Eurocodes but without critically evaluating the effectiveness of Eurocodes and national annexes in designing buildings with disaster resilience features. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the structural vulnerability of buildings to gravity, wind, and seismic loads. To fulfill these timely needs, this study envisages to examine the effectiveness of Eurocodes and national annexes to design disaster-resilient buildings in Sri Lanka, assessing the degree of disaster resilience of the existing buildings, and examining cost implications. To this end, this study put forwards a novel framework to evaluate the structural resilience of code-compliant and non-code-compliant reinforced concrete buildings under extreme wind and seismic loads. The framework constitutes non-linear static pushover analysis for wind assessments, non-linear dynamic time-history analysis, incremental dynamic analysis, and fragility assessments for seismic evaluations. The framework was first applied to a typical office building before assessing a three-story school building, an eight-story university building, and a six-story hospital building, designed according to Eurocodes (EN1990. (2005), EN 1991-1-1. (2002), EN 1991-1-4. (2010), EN 1992-1-1. (2004), EN 1998- 1. (2013)) and Sri Lankan national annexes, as well as a seven-story mixed-use defective building and its retrofitted version. The results showed that the Eurocode- based building designs have a significantly larger base shear capacity than the base shear force triggered by a wind with a 1700-year return period, the highest return period considered for the wind performance evaluation. Although these buildings have reasonable structural resilience against extreme seismic loading, they do not meet the more stringent performance requirements, such as Fully Operational and Operational, in the seismic performance objectives. Therefore, Eurocode-based designs can sometimes fail to meet the performance objectives for structural resilience, even though these objectives are assumed to be implicitly satisfied by the design codes and standards. The analysis of the defective building confirmed the building’s inadequate capacity to carry gravity, wind, and seismic loads. The retrofitted building with structural jacketing had enhanced load carrying capacities, indicating the effectiveness of structural jacketing as a retrofitting measure for defective buildings in Sri Lanka. The comparison of material properties, partial safety factors, load combinations, and design methodologies of Eurocodes and British Standards for designing beams and columns revealed that British Standards generally require more reinforcement for a given section size, mainly due to more conservative partial safety factors in load combinations. However, the differences in section sizes and reinforcement requirements strongly depend on the building type and loading conditions, such as gravity loading alone or a combination of gravity and lateral loading.
item: Conference-Extended-Abstract
Analysis of performance, integration, and scalability limitations of data virtualization layers for big data processing in emerging use cases
(Department of Computer Science and Engineering, 2025) Perera, H; Hewapathirana, I; Athuraliya, CD
In today’s data-driven world, data virtualization has emerged as a transformative technology that addresses these needs by providing a unified, abstract view of data from heterogeneous sources. Unlike traditional data integration methods, Data virtualization eliminates the need for physical data movement and replication, enabling seamless, real-time data access while reducing complexity and enhancing agility. These features make Data virtualization a cornerstone of modern data management systems, particularly in applications like business intelligence, data science, big data analytics and cloud computing [1]. However, despite its potential, data virtualization faces significant performance, scalability, and integration challenges when applied to complex, different varieties of workloads and application scenarios. These limitations hinder its adoption in scenarios involving high volumes of data and federated queries across diverse systems. This research investigates these critical challenges to bridge the gap between Data virtualization’s potential and its practical implementation. Additionally, it explores how Data virtualization can be optimized for emerging low-resource applications, such as personal IoT data management or small-scale analytics, extending its utility beyond enterprise environments.
item: Conference-Extended-Abstract
Self-optimizing RAG system with SLM for domain specific learning
(Department of Computer Science and Engineering, 2025) Himan, EAA; Athuraliya, CD
This research presents a Self-Optimizing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system integrated with Small Language Models (SLMs) to support domain-specific learning. The system is designed to transform structured and unstructured content, such as domain-related documents, lecture recordings, and scanned notes, into a searchable, intelligent knowledge base. By leveraging lightweight and efficient SLMs, the solution offers cost-effective and scalable AI assistance tailored to specific subject areas. The system enhances traditional RAG architectures by incorporating reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) to enable self-optimization. User feedback dynamically improves both the retrieval quality from vector databases and the response generation from the language model. In addition to interactive question-answering, the system provides personalized learning paths, curated reference materials, and progress insights.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Parametric adaptive model for optimum electrical system configuration in telecommunication base stations consisting of diesel generators, li-ion battery banks and solar photovoltaic
(2025) Silva, CMMRS; Chandima, DP
With the rapid development of next generation telecommunication devices and applications, demand for reliable, wider coverage and speed telecommunication networks has been a fundamental infrastructure prerequisite around the globe. For a highly reliable and wider coverage, the electrical system of the telecommunication base station should have the capacity to effectively maintain an uninterrupted power supply for smooth operations of radio and cooling equipment of the telecommunication base station. Development and operations of electrical systems for a network operator typically cost in the range of 20% to 30% of the total cost of ownership of a telecommunication network. Therefore, a significant impact on the bottom-line targets of the network operator can be achieved by evaluating the impact of optimization of power infrastructure deployed in telecommunication base stations. In this research, a parametric approach has been discussed to quantify multi dimensional characteristics affected when determining the optimum electrical system configuration for telecommunication base stations. Results of the proposed model have highlighted that when functional constraints become strict, the optimization model changes its proposed configuration with higher Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) with a change ranging from 5.7% to 15.3% which indicated the adaptive behaviour of the model. Further from the results, it is evident that the increase in expected network availability leads to an exponential increase in LCOE in the proposed electrical system which indicates the importance of correct benchmarking of the expected network availability of considered base station. When it comes to the behaviour of LCOE within the optimization model, even when 100% network availability is considered and when grid availability is dropped to 89.5%, LCOE of proposed optimum electrical system configuration maintained under 0.1 $/kWh, compared to the industry average of between 0.15 $/kWh to 0.3 $/kWh for a typical hybrid electrical system consisting of diesel generator, li-ion battery bank and solar Photovoltaic.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Reuse the ceramic glazed tile waste for the development of marine concrete modular
(2025) Liyanage, SU; Halwatura, RU; Kumara, TP
Coral reefs are critical to marine ecosystems, offering essential services such as coastal protection, food security, and habitats for diverse marine life. Despite their importance, these ecosystems are rapidly degrading due to environmental stressors and human activities. This study addresses coral reef degradation by developing an eco-friendly, sustainable solution using ceramic tile waste in concrete modular designs to support coral regrowth. The primary objectives were to study Sri Lanka's coastal marine environment, assess the feasibility of reusing ceramic tile waste, and develop an optimized concrete mix for marine conservation structures.
The methodology included an extensive literature review on coral transplantation, the role of concrete structures in marine conservation, and ceramic tile waste as an alternative material. Laboratory experiments explored the use of ceramic tile waste as a partial replacement for fine aggregates at proportions of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. Key tests—such as sieve analysis, slump tests, compressive strength tests, and X-ray diffraction (XRD)—validated the safety and suitability of ceramic waste for marine environments. Field deployment of two modular designs, Coral Hab and Marine Condo, at Polhena Beach, Sri Lanka, monitored coral growth and marine biodiversity. Results indicated that the optimal mix was achieved with a 25% replacement of fine aggregates using ceramic tile waste, providing structural integrity, environmental compatibility, and the required strength of 25 MPa. Incorporating foam concrete emerged as the most effective method, with 26% foam content identified as the optimal composition for cost efficiency, weight reduction, and improved surface quality.
XRD tests confirmed the absence of harmful substances in the ceramic waste. Following this, additional efforts focused on reducing weight, improving porosity, and lowering costs. Field results demonstrated that the concrete modules supported coral colonization and enhanced marine biodiversity. These findings confirm ceramic tile wastes and foam concrete's viability as sustainable materials for coral reef restoration. The study contributes to both marine conservation and sustainable waste management by repurposing ceramic tile waste into innovative reef restoration solutions. Further research is recommended to expand the application of these materials and assess long- term impacts on coral regrowth and marine ecosystems.