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Monolith2 – an On-line Database for Cement / Waste Products

By Martin O’SheaSchool of Computer Science and

Information SystemsBirkbeck, University of London

Malet StreetLondon, WC1E 7HX.

IEMSS, Barcelona, Spain, July 09 2008.

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The ProCeSS project ‘Process Envelopes for Cement-based Stabilisation/Solidification’ is a project

in the United Kingdom for the treatment of wastes from the chemical and metal industries that can not be prevented or reduced.

ProCeSS aims:

To develop process envelopes, i.e. cement binders resulting in an acceptable stabilised/solidified product, for generic S/S of the most

common or problematic residual waste types, with respect to handling, leachability, durability and cost.

To gain a better understanding of contaminant immobilisation mechanisms and long-term performance.

This will improve choice between waste treatment options, guide use and marketing of S/S by industry, prevent technology failures, enable

confident approval of S/S by regulators, and provide fundamental data for development of predictive models of long-term behaviour for risk

assessment.

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What is Monolith2?

Part of ProCeSS is a statistically-based experimental programme conducted by laboratories at four universities: University College London, Imperial

College London, University of Surrey and University of Cambridge.

The results from the programme are being collected in the on-line Monolith2 database system.

The aim of this is to gather a wide variety of highly technical information about waste treatment with cementitious binders from a number of

sources in the United Kingdom.

Birkbeck project staff have developed Monolith2 as an on-line system with adaptive interfaces for updating and searching the database, which will

assist the engineers involved in identification of process envelopes.

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Monolith2: architecture

Monolith2 is a typical web-based application where:

The client: Users make requests for pages to the server via a browser.

The server: Retrieves relevant data from the database and returns it to the

user in the form of a web page.

Software: JSPs and servlets written using NetBeans form the core

application with Apache Tomcat and MySQL as the web server and

database.

Some third-party products are also used.

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Monolith2: data

Monolith2 collates data consisting of almost 8000 cement/waste products

and some 300 literature sources with. data from the ProCeSS project.

Information regarding the handling, strength, durability and leaching products are defined in database

tables. In turn, these tables define the cement/waste product composition. Other tables describe physical and leaching tests upon the products.

This data will be publicly available later upon completion of the ProCeSS

project in 2009.

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Monolith2: access and interface

The home page allows access to all system components. The data model is displayed to allow navigation of the database’s tables,

each of which is separately maintained. Keys to identify data are system-generated.

Security allows a user to have access only to data they or their affiliation have entered.

Access is currently restricted to a small UK user base but it is planned to grant access to anyone who wants to register.

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Monolith2: querying dataMonolith2’s principle method of database querying consists of a series of pages which allow users to select from lists of tables, fields and physical

properties.

Sample outputs of dynamically generated pages showing ‘unconfined compressive strength’ data are given below:

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Monolith2: plotting data

A recent addition to Monolith2 is the ability to graphically represent types

and ranges of data entered.

Users select the X, Y and Z axes corresponding to tables and columns in

the database.

Various image types are available as well as various other plot options.

The sample plot shows unconfined compressive strengths at 28 days for a

variety of metal sludges.

Gnuplot is used for generating the plots.

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Monolith2: other facilities

Logging: All activity within Monolith2 is recorded in log files for later modelling of user activity using data mining techniques, e.g. Markov chains

or forms of statistical analysis.

Popular reporting tool Analog is also available to administrators.

Help: Extensive on-line help text also defines Monolith2’s database, its tables and column types.

Feedback: A simple feedback mechanism allows users to report comments or incidents to the administrators.

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Monolith2: applications

Monolith2 has several key applications:

To catalogue the technical properties of cement-based products to make it easier for authorities to distinguish between ‘wastes’ and ‘non-wastes’.

Because of the above, that more ‘waste’ materials will be used, conserving natural resources, minimising landfill and protecting the

environment.

That Monolith2’s data will be invaluable in developing an understanding of S/S required to predict the longevity of waste materials and evaluate any

attendant risks.

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Monolith2: the future

Potential future developments of Monolith2 relate to:

Recording additional data from research and industry.

Contaminant transport and materials.

Use of data for development of models in knowledge based systems.

Future system developments include:

Improving query and plot facilities with keyword searches.

Introducing data mining capabilities.

Improving help and feedback facilities.

Modelling user activity for personalisation.

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Acknowledgements

Project details: ProCeSS is co-funded in the UK by the Technology Strategy Board's Collaborative Research and

Development programme, sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (www.innovateuk.org) from

2006 - 2009.

Project partners: Representatives from 25 British organisations participate in the ProCeSS steering committee. The full list is

given on www.cege.ucl.ac.uk/process/.

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To conclude …

Further information: The paper that this presentation is based upon can be

downloaded from www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/~martin/ or I can be

contacted on martin@dcs.bbk.ac.uk.

Monolith2: http://nzone.dcs.bbk.ac.uk.

Are there any questions or comments?