University Projects and Internships

1. Saturation Flow Estimation of Signalized Intersection considering Dynamic PCU (CRRI, New Delhi, Summer Internship, 2015)

This study was a part of Work Package 5(A) of the Indian Highway Capacity Manual (Indo-HCM). The work focussed on evaluation of saturation flow of signalized intersection based on Indian traffic conditions by studying various signalized intersections. The study indicated that use of IRC based constant PCU (Passenger Car Unit) method underestimated saturation flow of signlized interesection in a heterogeneous traffic like India. A dynamic PCU based analysis was carried out which reflected more realistic estimates of saturation flow.

2. Strength and durability studies of geopolymer mortar partially replacing flyash with rice husk ash (MNIT Jaipur, B.Tech Project, 2016)

The project presented a comparative study on compressive strength of fly ash based geopolymer mortar with partial replacement of fly ash with rice husk ash. Amount of fly ash replaced was varied from 0% to 30% with a successive increment of 10%. Further variations were done by using different combinations of sea sand and sea water in place of conventionally used river sand and normal distilled water respectively. This was done to access the use of locally available cheap ingredients (sand and water) near coastal areas to reduce costs. Results showed that samples with 0%, 10% and 20% replacements of fly ash with rice husk ash achieved 7-day compressive strength higher than that of the 28-day compressive strength of equivalent H1 category of conventional OPC based mortar (i.e. higher than 10MPa). These results concluded high and early strength gain property of geopolymer mortars. Also, it is found that 10% replacement of fly ash with rice husk ash gives the maximum (more than that of 0% replacement) compressive strength for all the four combinations. All these results support the idea of using these two waste products in a definite proportion to achieve sustainable construction.

3. Vadose Zone Modelling Under Varying Environmental Conditions (IIT Roorkee, M.Tech Dissertation, 2018)

In this study, a new water stress compensated nonlinear water uptake model has been proposed by incorporating water stress compensation mechanism (WCM) in an existing non-linear uptake model. Governing differential equation (Richards' Equation) is solved numerically using the backward Euler finite difference approach and modified Picard’s iteration technique is used for linearization. A MATLAB code is developed to carry out the simulation. Observed data (including soil parameters and moisture data) for corn available in the literature is considered for moisture simulation. The performance of proposed model is compared with three other root water uptake models viz., non-linear uptake model and normalized root depth uptake model with and without WCM. The proposed model performs well in predicting the soil moisture profile with mean absolute error of 0.0167 and coefficient of variation 11.95% at 10 cm depth and mean absolute error of 0.0161 and coefficient of variation of 11.70% at 40 cm depth.