PROJECTS
Project are a great way to learn and understand concepts that are complex, expand your limits through topics generally not included in course work. They also help to explore various topics and fields in your subject of interest.
Lean Feasibility
As part of the project we conducted a survey of 10 construction firms in Atlanta. The main aim of the project was to understand the how the industry understands Lean with focus on small and medium firms and access their situation in industry. The main idea behind the project was that large firms have the financial resources to implement and procure any new technology and get immediate results because of their continuous nature of work. While the small and medium firms don't have that continuous nature of cash flow or work. So it becomes very difficult for them to invest and use modern technology ad advances in industry. Based on our findings I hope to develop it into a research paper. The main finding of project was that small firms if offered financial support while contracting are willing to implement lean practices and in the industry most of the bigger firms are more than happy to hire contractors who have the knowledge and capability to work with lean methodology.
Natural Ventilation
Natural ventilation is the one the new emerging
concept in the field of green energy. Successful implementation of natural
ventilation can help reduce the dependence on energy sources and reduce the
carbon output. Natural ventilation in
building is the flow generated because of temperature difference, wind and the
pressure difference between the outside and inside environment. Linked with
natural ventilation is the thermal comfort. To most people wind seems to be the
dominant factor affecting natural ventilation, but the pressure difference and
temperature variation also play a dominant role in aiding natural ventilation.
Natural ventilation is directly linked to thermal comfort. Thermal comfort can
be defined as the indoor environment that most of the people are comfortable
with. ASHRAE has set standards for the thermal comfort. Two forms of
ventilation are generally observed in any building i.e. single sided
ventilation and cross ventilation. Balconies over the years have changed their
function from being used as a natural ventilation aid to being used as an
aesthetic member in the building. With the exposure that balconies provide the
to the external environment. The dynamic of these buoyancy driven winds and the
effects of various elements of the building is very important for the
understanding.
Organizational structure and Project management
State DOTs are the primary organization responsible for providing major transportation services throughout the United States. With the aging infrastructure and large number of projects on hand they want to improve their delivery process for design - bid - build type of projects so that they can better meet the success criteria of time and cost. So, the main motivation for the research is a to provide a thorough analysis of how the relationship works between various variables that affect the projects in DOT's and to provide a suggested approach with in- depth analysis which will provide the DOTs basis for changing their organizational structure.
Floating City
The main aim of this research was to find an alternative to the ever increasing demand of land. in this project we designed using float able concrete a platform on which a small community can developed for future sue. The calculations included design of G+3 story building, community planning, vertical food gardening design, road design etc. The main idea behind the project is that with the increasing demand of land in major cities, the prices of land would go up and eventually it would be a very viable solution.
Use of Rubber Tire fibers in Concrete to Improve their spalling and shrinkage resistance
Millions of waste rubber tires are lying around in dump yards and land fills with no potential use. It takes thousands of years for rubber to decompose. So the main aim for this project was to use the the polypropylene fibers that are used to make rubber vehicular tires ad extract them from waste tires and use them in concrete. The fibers were added in the range of 0.3%-0.7% of aggregates. With the addition of fibers, the spalling and shrinkage properties improved drastically. Compressive Strength increased by 29%. The tests were conducted at 7,14,21 days for all various levels of replacement. The fire study was done in a government approved lab, with verified results.
Earthquake Resistant Techniques
We did a case study on the BHUJ hospital which was rebuilt after the devastating earthquake with Japanese earth quake resistant techniques. The main aim for the project was to deign efficient and cost effective earthquake resistant techniques which can used in normal building to increase there resilience. Based on the understanding, we deisgned a earthquake resistant technique using neoprene compound and a changed assembly under major structural parts to better distribute the loads horizontally and vertically.
Use of Plastic in Road surfacing
The purpose of this project was to understand how the waste plastic lying around in land fills can be used for a better purpose. So we replaced some part of bitumen in road with plastic and conducted various tests to understand the change in various properties with the replacement. Also we tried various replacements levels of plastic and optimum was found at 3%. Most of the properties remained same except increase in durability and decrease in porosity which would avoid washout of the road. The cost can be reduced by around 2-2.5%.