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

In the present work, numerical study on wrinkling and vibration analysis of initially flat, linear elastic and isotropic pre-stressed membranes are carried out using commercial finite element package, ABAQUS. In both the cases consistency of the results produced by finite element analysis for different type and size of elements are examined. It is found that element type S8R5 (eight noded quadrilateral element with five degrees of freedom and reduced integration) is giving consistent results in wrinkling analysis and element types STRI65 (six noded triangular element with five degrees of freedom), S8R5 and STRI3 (Three noded triangular element with six degrees of freedom and full integration) are showing lesser variation from analytical results for vibration analysis. � 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

World University root node

Recent Advances in Materials, Mechanics and Management - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Materials, Mechanics and Management, IMMM 2017

Mesh dependency study on wrinkling and vibration analysis on pre-stressed membranes

Sugarcane and rice are cultivated in vast tracts of land in the southern part of India. The bagasse and rice husk that are collected during the processing of sugarcane and rice paddies, respectively, possess good calorific values and are used for supplementary energy production. However, the ash generated in the process is dumped in landfills. This paper evaluates the benefits of using these agro-waste ashes (sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) and rice husk ash (RHA)) as cement replacement in concrete, through a systematic investigation of strength and durability characteristics of two different strength grades of concrete. The results indicate that the compressive strength of bagasse-ash- and RHA-blended concretes was higher than that of control ordinary Portland cement (OPC) specimens for both grades of concrete. In addition to improved strength, remarkable resistance against water and air and chloride permeability was observed for the blended cement concrete specimens. In the same way, SCBA- and RHA-blended mortar specimens performed better against sulfate attack compared to control OPC specimens. The paper also evaluates the sustainability impact of the concretes produced using SCBA and RHA and the results from this study clearly show that these materials provide a local approach to the production of sustainable concrete. © 2019 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.

Green Materials

Durability of concrete with agro-waste: A local approach to sustainability

The use of nanotechnology is of prominent research interest in the construction industry. Introducing nanomaterials into cementitious systems enhances its characteristic material properties. Nano-silica is the most efficient nanomaterial in replacing cement without compromising its strength and durability. Nano-silica also enhances the properties of cement when in conjugation with other supplementary cementitious materials. Nano-silica offers high chemical reactivity and introduces filler effect in the cement matrix, thereby densifying the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) and improving the properties of cement-based materials. However, the addition of nano-silica more than the optimum dosage reduces the strength and durability. Apart from the dosage, many other parameters also influence the properties of nano-slica blended cement composites. This study deals with the changes in characteristic properties of cement and cement-based materials upon incorporation of nano-silica. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019.

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Influence of nano-silica on characteristics of cement mortar and concrete

IIT, Delhi

Engineering behavior of oil shale under high pressure after thermal treatment

The current paper presents the formulation of stochastic B-spline wavelet on the interval (BSWI) based wavelet finite element method (WFEM) for one dimensional (1D) and two dimensional (2D) problems in elasto-statics wherein, the spatial variation of modulus of elasticity is modelled as a homogeneous random field. Random field discretization is done using BSWI scaling functions. Perturbation approach is used to calculate the response statistics. The results are compared with that obtained from Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and a parametric study is carried out by considering different coefficient of variation values by varying the standard deviation. For 1D problem in particular, results from proposed stochastic WFEM method are compared with those found using stochastic finite element method (FEM) wherein random field discretization is done using Lagrange shape functions. A comparative study of the computational time needed for the execution of perturbation approach and MCS based on WFEM and FEM is also performed. © 2019

Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics

A stochastic B-spline wavelet on the interval finite element method for problems in elasto-statics

Field burning of rice straw as a method of disposal by farmers is a major concern as the smoke and harmful emissions from it causes dangerous levels of pollution. Seven out of ten cities with the poorest air quality in the world are in India and paddy field burning has been cited as one of the main reasons. Hazardous emissions from paddy field burning is combined with greenhouse gas emissions from coal fired power plants and cement manufacturing units, causing severe respiratory illnesses and other fatal health issues. The recent literature indicates an increased interest in rice straw valorisation, possibly in response to the increasing concerns over paddy field burning. However, a systematic study that compiles and compares various rice straw valorisation routes is lacking in the existing literature. This paper provides a comprehensive review of literature on various alternative uses of rice straw in energy and construction industries. Effective use of rice straw as a biomass fuel in energy sector not only reduces the field burning, but also decreases the dependency on non-renewable fossil fuels. Moreover, the proposed utilisation of secondary by-products from rice straw-based energy production in the construction industry can help to attain the goals of resource cascading. The availability of rice straw in major rice producing states of India and the feasibility of establishing rice straw-based power plants are also examined in this study. The potential reduction of harmful emissions from such resource recycling has been determined as per the guidelines issued by the intergovernmental panel on climate change. From the review of literature and the findings of the present study, a sustainable framework has been developed with well-defined cleaner production pathways to create a seamless material flow chain between the agricultural, energy and construction sectors. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Journal of Cleaner Production

Sustainable alternatives to carbon intensive paddy field burning in India: A framework for cleaner production in agriculture, energy and construction industries

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss about evaluating the integrals involving B-spline wavelet on the interval (BSWI), in wavelet finite element formulations, using Gauss Quadrature. Design/methodology/approach: In the proposed scheme, background cells are placed over each BSWI element and Gauss quadrature rule is defined for each of these cells. The nodal discretization used for BSWI WFEM element is independent to the selection of number of background cells used for the integration process. During the analysis, background cells of various lengths are used for evaluating the integrals for various combination of order and resolution of BSWI scaling functions. Numerical examples based on one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) plane elasto-statics are solved. Problems on beams based on Euler Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theory under different boundary conditions are also examined. The condition number and sparseness of the formulated stiffness matrices are analyzed. Findings: It is found that to form a well-conditioned stiffness matrix, the support domain of every wavelet scaling function should possess sufficient number of integration points. The results are analyzed and validated against the existing analytical solutions. Numerical examples demonstrate that the accuracy of displacements and stresses is dependent on the size of the background cell and number of Gauss points considered per background cell during the analysis. Originality/value: The current paper gives the details on implementation of Gauss Quadrature scheme, using a background cell-based approach, for evaluating the integrals involved in BSWI-based wavelet finite element method, which is missing in the existing literature. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Engineering Computations (Swansea, Wales)

A background cell-based numerical integration for B-spline wavelet on the interval finite element method

Artificial composites inspired from biological materials such as nacre and bone has a staggered structure of hard inclusions surrounded by a soft interface. These composites possess an excellent combination of strength, toughness and stiffness. These properties depends on a critical value of overlap ratio of inclusions, and hence is one of major parameters in the design of bio-inspired composites. Randomness in material and geometrical parameters could exist in such composites. In this work, the randomness in various parameters are considered, and using probabilistic methods, the critical overlap ratio is found out. This is done for two dimensional, and three dimensional inclusions. For the three dimensional case, due to unavailability of the analytical solution, high dimensional model representation technique in conjunction with finite element analysis is done to find out the critical overlap ratio. To determine the probability of failure for two dimensional as well as three dimensional cases, Monte Carlo Simulation is used. Finally, based on the study a factor of safety is proposed for the critical stress intensity factor which could be used in design to account for uncertainties in the various parameters. © 2019