FACULTY COMPETENCIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Concrete Canoe Unwheeling -– OCT 2019

National Concrete Canoe Challenge - ASCE SRM Student Chapter - 5th and 6th October 2019.

Figure 1: National Concrete Canoe Challenge Event (above), Prototype of Canoes involved

in with different design by SRMIST (below).

SRM Students Receive AICTE National Vishwakarma Award from MHRD Minister –

FEB 2020

The students of SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur have made their

Institute proud once again. This time, Team SRM Green Stabilizers from the Department of Civil

Engineering ranked first in the national AICTE - Chhatra Vishwakarma Award – 2019.

The team collected the award from the Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource Development Shri

Ramesh Pokhriyal and Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education, Prof. Anil D

Sahasrabudhe.

The award ceremony was held in New Delhi on 24 February 2020. The team received a certificate

and a cash prize of Rs.51,000. The team was ranked first in the Land category by presenting an

innovative solution/prototype under the theme ‘How to enhance the income of village’. The

student team consists of M. Aravind, Shankar Kandasamy, Dhivya S and Kavya M. They were

mentored by Chezhiyan S, Assistant Professor/Civil.

Figure 2: The Team of students and faculty while receiving award from AICTE

ASCE LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAMME – Feb 2020

The SRM Institute Of science & Technology along with American Society of Civil Engineers

India Section Southern Region Organized ASCE LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAMME on

26th February 2020.

Figure 3: Team of Faculty members who involved in ASCE Leadership Training

Programme

Finally the Light weight low cost precast toilet built under Social Outreach program of ASCE

SRM Student Chapter and ASCE SRM Student Activities room was inaugurated by our chief

guest, which was the pride moment of our SRM ASCE Student Chapter. Research and

Development Team in association with Unnat bharat abhiyan (UBA) SRMIST near SRM Main

Gate for Public use under Social Outreach Program.

Figure 4: Final prototype of Public Toilet constructed with precast element

Development activities

COCONUT SHELL CONCRETE RESEARCH LAB

First, coconut shell concrete mix design was developed and produced. On this coconut

shell concrete, studies on mechanical properties, bond properties and durability properties were

studied. Structural behavior of coconut shell concrete under flexure, shear and torsion were

analyzed. Plastic shrinkage and deflection characteristics of coconut shell concrete slab were

studied. Full scaled structure was constructed using coconut shell concrete and the behaviors were

monitored for more than five years. All the studies on coconut shell concrete show that the

behavior of coconut shell concrete are very similar to conventional concrete. Especially, coconut

shell concrete gives more ductility compared to conventional concrete which is more benefit and

useful for earthquake resistant and blast resistant structures.

Non-structural elements such as coconut shell concrete hollow blocks, mosaic tiles, paver blocks,

manhole cover, pipe, fencing post, etc, were also produced and tested for practical implementation.

It can be concluded that the coconut shell is one of the promising alternate material for the

production of sustainable concrete and can be recommended use the coconut shell concrete in

different applications of both structural and non-structural elements without any hesitate with full

confident. For the benefit of the readers of this article, some of the photographs are given below

may give some useful information.

Development of Coconut Shell Concrete

Figure 5: Various stages of coconut shell Preparation for Concreting

Prototype / Models using coconut shell concrete.

Figure 6: Various Products made by using Coconut shell Concrete

EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH CELL

SRM Institute of Science and Technology (Formerly known as SRM University) established

an Earthquake Research cell (ERC) in July 2012 for Advanced Research on the causes for origin,

occurrence and prediction of Earthquake by better understanding the geodynamical behavior of

this natural disaster on the globe. Earthquake Research Cell is having an interdisciplinary approach

towards the goal and the Research Scientific team comprises of Earth scientists, Geophysicist,

Civil Engineers, Computer science Engineers, Chemical engineers, Nanotechnology Scientist and

related experts.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS a) Seismic Energy and Threshold Determination (SikkimDarjeeling)

b) Thematic parameters based Seismic hazard assessment (Sikkim region) c) Active Tectonic

Index and seismic significance (Lower Tista Sub-basin Sikkim-Darjeeling region) d) Landslide

hazard assessment (Sikkim region) e) GIS customization and WEB GIS based seismic information

system (Sikkim and Andaman)

FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECT Development of Morphotectonic Spatial Model and GIS based

Customized Tool for Neotectonic Study of Andaman Region - A Geological and Geoinformatics

approach Funding agency : Selective Excellence Sponsored Project, SRMIST (Internal funding)

Duration : 2016 – 2018

FACILITIES: Handheld GPS, QGIS 3.10 Software, Rockwork17 Software, Voxler4 Software,

Strater5 Software.

Fig 7: GIS Customization Tool

Fig 8: Research Project details

CENTRE FOR ADVANCED CONCRETE RESEARCH

Centre for Advanced Concrete Research (CACR) at SRM Institute of Science and Technology,

Kattankulathur was started in the year 2010, to carry out interdisciplinary research in the field of

concrete, a most common material of construction in any built environment and a basic necessity

for accelerated economic development.

The main objectives of our center are,

To identify the improvements/modifications desired in the existing conventional concrete

construction practices.

To develop new materials of construction with lower 'carbon foot prints' and reduced

'embodied energy contents'.

To formulate guidelines for ecofriendly constructions.

To undertake sponsored investigation studies to find solutions for specific field problems

in construction industry from considerations of selection of appropriate materials and

disposals of waste/by-products from industry.

To perform all type of consultancy works on concrete especially mechanical studies,

durability studies, non-destructive testing studies etc.,

To conduct seminars/workshops/advanced courses to disseminate the latest knowledge in

the field of concrete composites.

Equipments

Thermal Conductivity Apparatus

Computerised Dilatometer (1000oC)

Rebound Hammer

Digital pH Meter

Corrosion Monitoring System

Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV)

Resistivity Meter

Concrete Penetrometer Spring Type

Box Furnace (1000oC)

Rapid Chloride Permeability Test (RCPT)

Infrared Thermometer

Serological Water Bath

Laboratory Ball Mill

Geopolymer Demo Building at Raichur,

Karnataka

Precast Geopolymer Toilet Block at SRM

IST, Kattankulathur

Demo Geopolymer Pavement for ACCE Program at Pandian Hotel, Madurai

ADVANCED COMPOSITE RESEARCH CENTRE

Advanced Composite Research Centre proposed by Dr Alak Kumar Patra, Associate Professor,

Department of Civil Engineering has been started functioning under patronage of Honourable Vice

Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor of SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur and

Head of the Department of Civil Engineering. The Centre received approval from the authority in

the year 2019 for research and development on advanced composites. Towards that destination, a

research group from Civil Engineering department is currently working on simulation and

experimental investigation on advanced composites. While the Civil works are still in progress,

the centre under Civil Engineering Department has submitted joint proposal on Advanced

Composite Research to Govt. of India with foreign collaborators and is working with overseas

collaborators on joint research, publication, and exchange programs. The research group has

published papers and submitted book chapters for joint publication from Springer Nature with

collaborators from Western University.

MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING RESEARCH FACILITY

The "Microwave Remote Sensing Research Facility" is established with basic facilities at the

Department of Civil Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology as a part of DST-

SERB funded project hired by Dr. P. Shoba in 2019. The research facility is equipped with the

sensors namely SM moisture kit (SM 150), Surface Roughness Tester (SRG), and Digital water

and soil analysis kit (Model 161), and equipment namely Dynamic Cone Penetration Test

Apparatus (DCPT) to perform field observations related to soil moisture, soil roughness, biomass

roughness, salinity, and saline hardpans. The facility is also deployed with the "Dell Precision

Tower – WorkStation" of high configuration to support the simulation activities. The Research

Facility has filed three Indian patents on the innovations "DPSVI (Dual Polarization SAR

Vegetation Index)," "Aggregate Roughness," and "DSDM-SS (Density Space Dielectric Model-

Soil Salinity)." Commercialization of the simulation "DPSVI" has been initiated with Earth

Analytics India Pvt Ltd and sarmap SA of Switzerland. The research facility has a record of

producing a significant number of research articles, among which two of the papers have been

published in a core and top-tier journal of remote sensing "Remote Sensing of Environment," with

the current impact factor of 9. This laboratory's research work has been internationally recognized

and awarded as an outstanding research work by springer nature in Tunisia in 2018. The research

facility is actively involved in performing pioneering research in microwave remote sensing and

conducting training programs for researchers across the world in this field.

• HERITAGE MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION/SIMULATION LAB

The research laboratory was established in the year 2017. The Heritage lab focus on

characterisation of materials used in ancient structures and simulation of the compatible

mortars/plasters. In this laboratory ancient building materials are being explored to comprehend

how and why such materials have changed over the ages, their futuristic performance, and ways

to conserve these materials from further damage. Tests related to conservation and restoration of

heritage structures such as characterisation of ancient mortars/plaster adopting modern analytical

techniques, strength and durability of traditional materials, development of natural plant based

additives are performed. Properties of the restoration materials performed in the laboratory

include: Material properties - Chemical composition, particle size distribution, organic analysis:

Fresh state properties - mortar flowability, water retentivity: Mechanical characteristics -

compression, flexure, drying shrinkage, Young’s modulus: Physical properties- water absorption,

porosity, bulk density, water permeability: Durability Assessment- capillarity, salt crystallization:

Masonry properties- shear, compression, tensile, bond and flexure strength.

Ongoing Research:

• Seismic analysis of Valley conical arch at Alamparai Fort, Kadappakkam

• Modeling and analysis of 1500 years old Arasar Temple at Karungozhi, Chengalpattu

district, under earthquake condition.

• Developing lime based mud mortars as a low cost traditional material

Year of activity Name of Lab Name of Lab-In-charge Development activity

CA

Y (2

019-

2020

) Coconut Shell Concrete Research Lab

Dr.K.GUNASEKARAN

Prefabricated unipaver concrete block embedded with coconut shell particles & Prefabricated Fencing post embedded with coconut shell particles.

Advanced Composite Research Centre

Dr. ALAK KUMAR PATRA

Advanced Composite Research Centre

CA

Ym

1 (2

018-

2019

)

Earthquake Research cell

Dr.R.SIVAKUMAR

"Development of ARCPY based customized tool in GIS for seismic

Information system"

Surface Soil Moisture Meter

Kit SM 150

Dynamic Cone Penetration Test

Apparatus (DCPT)

Digital water and soil

analysis kit (Model 161)

Table 1: The list of various Research laboratories developed in recent years

Microwave Remote Sensing Research Facility

Dr. P. SHOBA

Microwave Remote Sensing Research Facility established from DST SERB project fund

Soil Stabilization Lab Dr. S. BHUVANESHWARI

Development of Soil Stabilization Lab Set up

CA

Ym

2 (2

017-

2018

)

Heritage materials characterization / simulation laboratory

Dr.R.RAVI Development of Heritage materials characterization / simulation laboratory

Earthquake Research cell

Dr.R.SIVAKUMAR Development of EaHaAsTo tool for visualization

Coconut Shell Concrete Research Lab

Dr.K.GUNASEKARAN

Concrete / Mortar composition comprising coconut shell husk & Coconut shell crusher.