Tejaswini Lakshmi Tavva

Research Scholar

Department of Civil Engineering (Specialized in Transportation Engineering)

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Month and year of joining PMRF : July, 2018

Thesis supervisor : Prof. Kusam Sudhakar Reddy

E-mail : teja.tavva@iitkgp.ac.in

Mobile : (+91)-9800189894

About

I am currently pursuing research in Transportation Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Kusam Sudhakar Reddy at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. I completed Master of Technology in Transportation Engineering and Bachelors of Technology (Honours) in Civil Engineering under the dual degree programme from IIT Kharagpur in 2018. My research interests are pavement materials, analysis and design, Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) materials, rehabilitation and maintenance of pavements and pavement management systems.

Research Area

The pressing need for sustainable development and the rapidly increasing cost of conventional materials used in road construction encourage the use of recycled materials without compromising the performance of new pavement. Recent years have witnessed significant research in understanding the impact of utilizing higher amounts of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) material on the overall performance of bituminous pavements. Incorporating higher RAP contents in bituminous mixes leads to potential economic and environmental benefits. However, this is limited due to various performance-related and mix production constraints. An appropriate mix design procedure can ensure the overall performance of recycled mixes to be same as that of conventional mixes. The most important factor controlling the performance of recycled mixes is the 'blending' of aged bitumen present in RAP material with the new bitumen added and hence, needs a clear and deeper understanding.

Thesis topic - 'Investigation on the blending of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement bitumen'

The main objective of the study is to understand the blending phenomenon of aged bitumen from RAP material with the new bitumen added, and develop a methodology to quantitatively estimate the extent of blending taking various influencing factors into consideration. The proposed methodology will be validated using performance tests on bituminous mixes.

Courses during PhD

  • Characterization of rubber and rubber-like materials (RT60020)

  • Highway Construction Practice (CE60136)

  • Applied Multivariate Statistical Modelling - I (IM60061)

  • English for Technical Writing (HS63002)