Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

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IIT Palakkad

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Annual Meeting- Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS)

A comparative study on different calibration approaches for streamflow prediction in SWAT Model

Intensive row crop agriculture on loess mantled hillslopes in the upper Midwest, USA, accelerates soil erosion and the loss of organic matter by increasing soil aggregate breakdown, changing surface roughness patterns, and leaving soil exposed to rainfall and wind for much of the year. There is a knowledge gap, however, in relating how the dynamics of soil erosion on hillslopes control landscape heterogeneity in terms of particle size, surface soil organic chemistry and reactivity. Simulated rainfall experiments on intensively managed hillslopes in the Clear Creek, IA watershed, USA, revealed that tillage-induced, oriented roughness controls the amount and organic geochemistry of soil particles mobilized downhill. The average discharge rate of mobilized sediment was nearly 30-fold higher when the tillage orientation was parallel to the runoff direction compared to when the tillage orientation (i.e. contour tillage) was perpendicular to the runoff direction. Mobilized particles under contour tillage were higher in organic carbon (OC) content and were relatively less decomposed, based on lignin chemistry, compared to analogous particles under the parallel tillage orientation. Contour tillage increased deposition of denser particles within the furrows and increased the release of the finer, lighter, and organic-rich material during over-spilling and contour breach. Our findings have important implications for understanding how the interaction of tillage practices and event-based erosion influences the spatial heterogeneity of soil geochemistry and potentially soil health across agricultural landscapes as well as understanding what controls the geochemical signature of soil erosion into streams. © 2020

Soil and Tillage Research

Tillage-induced surface soil roughness controls the chemistry and physics of eroded particles at early erosion stage

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been experiencing the need for higher growth in gross domestic product (GDP) over the last few years. This growth necessitates the investments in major construction projects over the next few years. Unlike the projects in other industries, construction projects subjected to unique characteristics increase the probability of risks occurrence and their impact on achieving project objectives. Design stage was found to have a significant role in managing the risks during the project’s lifecycle. However; key challenges arise from the facts that the design phase has a numerous of interdependent, knowledge intensive multidisciplinary tasks and the overall process is inherently iterative in nature. This poor design interface management leads to project time overrun, cost overrun and poor quality output. Many tools and methods have been developed for the design information management. However these methods are not widely used except the building information modeling (BIM). Construction industry has benefited in many areas through BIM, and a natural consequent is to investigate its capabilities in managing risks. Literature review revealed that the existing BIM-based risk management frameworks required further development to manage the design phase related risks impacting the time, cost and quality of DBB projects. This paper proposed a conceptual BIM-based risk management framework to manage the design phase related risks for DBB high rise building projects in UAE. A framework has been validated through a case study. The results show that the risks can be effectively mitigated by implementing the proposed framework. © 2020, The Society for Reliability Engineering, Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM), India and The Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden.

International Journal of Systems Assurance Engineering and Management

BIM based risk management for design bid build (DBB) design process in the United Arab Emirates: a conceptual framework

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore, using fine-grained exploratory multi-case studies, organisational learning practices – and associated constraints – impacting the performance of four small- and medium-sized project organisations which deliver energy efficiency projects in South Africa and whose learning practice mixes are of wider significance for the emerging project society in the region. Design/methodology/approach: The unit of analysis is the Energy Efficiency Demand Side Management (EEDSM) programme; a US$104m grant funded the initiative directed at supporting energy efficient retro-fit projects across local municipalities in South Africa. Thematic analysis is undertaken, based on multiple exploratory interviews with project practitioners working for small- and medium-sized EEDSM project organisations. Findings: Recognising the criticality of tacit knowledge as a focus for learning, within unstructured, novel, non-routine and technically specialised learning contexts in particular, the widespread lack of organisational harnessing through linkages to strategy and performance are noted and advocacy is offered for the development of appropriate learning cultures linked to communities of practice that bring specialists together from across regional project societies. Research limitations/implications: The socio-political context of the EEDSM programme, although briefly addressed for its organisational cultural implications, was not given detailed consideration in the exploratory interviews. This would have enhanced the idiographic complexity of the findings, while also reducing prospects for distilling generalisable organisational learning improvement opportunities for emerging project societies. However, the study does not seek to provide evidence for specific learning practice effects on performance as this was not something the interviewees felt able to comment on in significant detail. Originality/value: Learning practice studies for small- and medium-sized project organisations remains sparse, so are studies of business environments within developing countries, in general, or sub-Saharan Africa, in particular. Looking beyond narrow individual project views of performance, the present study's project society-based business environment is theorised as both constraining and benefiting from the project-learning practices discussed by the respondents.

Management Research Review

Organisational learning in small and medium sized South African energy project organisations

The study investigates the performance of Cu2+ as dissolved cathodic electron-shuttle mediator (dcESM) for simultaneous Cr6+ reduction and electricity generation in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) at pH 2 and 4 conditions. The dcESM behavior of Cu2+ on carbon cloth (CC) catalyzes the reduction of Cr6+ into Cr3+ at pH 2 by undergoing redox reactions. However, at pH 4, a simultaneous reduction of Cu2+ and Cr6+ was observed. Cyclic voltammetry studies were performed at pH 2 and 4 to probe the dcESM behavior of Cu2+ for Cr6+ reduction on CC electrode. Also, at pH 2, increasing the concentration of Cu2+ from 50 to 500 mg L- 1 favors the Cr6+ reduction by reducing the reaction time from 108 to 48 h and improving the current production from 3.9 to 6.2 mA m- 2, respectively. Nevertheless, at pH 4, the efficacy of Cr6+ reduction and electricity generation from MFC is decreased from 63 to 18% and 4.4 to 1.1 mA m- 2, respectively, by increasing the Cu2+ concentration from 50 to 500 mg L- 1. Furthermore, the performance of dcESM behavior of Cu2+ was explored on carbon felt (CF) and platinum (Pt) electrodes, and compare the results with CC. In MFC, at pH 2, with an initial concentration of 100 mg L- 1, the reduction of Cr6+ in 60 h is 9.6 mg L- 1 for CC, 0.2 mg L- 1 for CF, and 51.3 mg L- 1 for Pt cathodes. The reduction of Cr6+ (initial concentration of 100 mg L- 1) at pH 4 in 120 h is 44.7 mg L- 1 for CC, 32.1 mg L- 1 for CF, and 70.9 mg L- 1 for Pt cathodes. Maximum power densities of 1659, 1509, and 1284 mW m- 2 were achieved when CF, CC, and Pt, respectively were employed as cathodes in the MFC. © 2020 The Author(s).

Fulltext

Sustainable Environment Research

The performance of Cu2+as dissolved cathodic electron-shuttle mediator for Cr6+reduction in the microbial fuel cell

The current paper presents the formulation of stochastic B-spline wavelet on the interval (BSWI) based wavelet finite element method (WFEM) for beams wherein, the spatial variation of modulus of elasticity is modelled as a homogeneous random field. Stochastic beam element formulations based on both Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and Timoshenko beam theory are proposed. BSWI scaling functions are used for the discretization of the random field and the response statistics are obtained using the perturbation approach. Numerical examples are solved and the results from perturbation approach are compared with that obtained from Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). A parametric study is also done to understand the effect of different coefficient of variation (CV) values and correlation length parameters on the response statistics. The study concludes that the proposed BSWI WFEM based perturbation approach for beams produce accurate response statistics for values of CV less than 15%. A comparative study is carried out between the results obtained from the proposed stochastic WFEM with stochastic finite element method (SFEM) wherein the random field discretization is done using Lagrange shape functions. Furthermore, normalized computational times for the execution of perturbation approach and MCS based on WFEM are evaluated and compared with those obtained for SFEM. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Computers and Structures

A stochastic B-spline wavelet on the interval finite element method for beams

Level of Service (LOS) indicates the operational efficiency of traffic facilities. The method recommended by Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) for signalized intersections uses control delay as the service measure and does not incorporate users’ perception. As LOS is a measure of customer satisfaction, it is important to incorporate users’ perceptions into it. This paper attempts to evaluate the influence of user’s vehicle class on perceived LOS at signalized intersections under heterogeneous traffic conditions. An extensive user perception survey involving approximately 8500 users in motorized two wheelers, three wheelers, cars, and buses at 15 signalized intersections across India populates the database. From the model results, it has been concluded that along with perceived waiting time, other perception-related factors have significant effect on the users’ perceived LOS. The findings highlight the necessity of incorporating qualitative parameters in LOS analysis in addition to the conventional service measure (i.e. delay). © 2020, © 2020 Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Limited.

Transportmetrica A: Transport Science

Perceived level of service at signalized intersections under heterogeneous traffic conditions

Recent critiques of the BIM literature describe it as largely devoid of critical theoretical perspectives and theorization capable of explaining the nature of change in work practices in a holistic manner. In response, the authors argue that, from a theoretical standpoint, implementing BIM within professional work practices (as activity systems) induces their evolution through dysfunctions created within the systems and their resolution. Cases of professional organizations in South Africa that have implemented BIM within their organization and in multi-organizational projects helped to develop new theoretical insights into how professional work practices evolve using activity theory-based re-description of the data. Changes in professional work practices were analyzed sequentially within the framework, confirming theoretical propositions and revealing the dynamics between and within the interconnected system of actors, their object, tools, rules guiding work, roles they assume and the stakeholders. Essentially, the findings imply that the implementation of BIM significantly changes work practices within organizations, but gradually and over time. This supports an evolutionary, rather than a radical or revolutionary, view of BIM-induced change. This theoretical perspective could explain future dimensions of change in professional work practices involving BIM and indeed similar work mediating tools.

Construction Management and Economics

Understanding BIM's impact on professional work practices using activity theory

Sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), a by-product from sugar industry, has been evidently reported as a potential alternative cementitious material that can partially replace cement. In spite of its high valorization potential in cement production, the large quantity of bagasse ash generated from Indian sugar plants (44,220 tonnes/day) is entirely unutilized and disposed as waste. Lack of comprehensive SCBA availability and accessibility studies are the major deterrents for the effective utilization of SCBA in industrial scale applications. This study investigated the availability of bagasse ash, fly ash and slag in India and their accessibility to existing cement plants. A comparative network analysis using ArcGIS was adopted, to assess the benefits of using bagasse ash in cement plants. Bagasse ash was found to be a potentially viable supplementary cementitious material in three out of the five major sugar-producing states of India. It is shown that switching over to bagasse ash results in significant reduction of carbon emissions associated with logistics (5.41 million tonnes/year). Strategic locations for new cement plants were identified based on availability of bagasse ash, using location-allocation analysis. A practical framework has also been presented for the effective utilization and recycling of sugar industry wastes in the construction sector. © 2020, Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature.

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management

Effective utilization of sugar industry waste in Indian construction sector: A geospatial approach

The current practice of factor of safety computation of pile-stabilised slopes depends substantially on either the extension of methods for normal slopes with the pile-contribution introduced as an additional term or finite-element modelling. Extending conventional methods to analyse pile-stabilised slopes fails to capture the key mechanisms like soil arching, gradual transfer of resistance offered by the pile through the slope, change in slip surface due to introduction of piles and so on. In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed to compute the factor of safety of pile-stabilised slopes, in which the Morgenstern–Price method is modified to incorporate the effect of a pile. The resistance offered by the pile is obtained using a pressure-based method which considers the soil-arching effect in horizontal and vertical directions. The gradual propagation of this resistance offered by the pile is incorporated through an iterative procedure, unlike the conventional methods. The algorithm considers the change in slip surface due to the introduction of the pile. The factor of safety values computed using the proposed algorithm were found to be in close agreement with that obtained from finite-element modelling. Moreover, a simple technique to determine the optimal location of stabilising piles and pile-spacing is also presented.