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Industrial Research And Consultancy Centre

Application of expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads

A construction technique using lightweight geomaterials has many practical advantages because of their light self-weight, which makes it possible to reduce large deformations and differential settlement of soft ground or a foundation with poor bearing capacity. Nowadays expanded polystyrene (EPS) blocks are used with soil to make it lightweight material. Few applications like embankment construction, retaining walls and road construction can be mention. These blocks are manufactured by industry in regular shapes only.

Geocell mattress: Encased fly ash column composite systems in soft clay

This study narrates the use of post-consumer waste plastic water bottles for developing a new type encasement to confine the fly ash columns fully penetrated in soft clay. Geocell reinforced fly ash beds along with a jute geotextile separator were also placed over the fly ash columns, while the cellular mattresses were also made of same type plastic water bottles.

Design of 300 m high artificial mountain using geosynthetics

The study presents reinforcement parameters for a 300m high artificial sand mountain. It is first attempt to design such huge structure with geogrid reinforced soil in the world. Limit equilibrium method is used in this study. Hit and Trial method is then used to optimize the reinforcement parameters and achieve desired factor of safety. The obtained reinforcement details can be helpful in designing high rise reinforced soil structures. The reinforced soil structure is stable, economic and easy to construct as compared to unreinforced one.

Numerical evaluation of expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam creep

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam is an interesting area in the field of geotechnical engineering and its service life is comparable to other construction materials. With different geotechnical applications of EPS geofoam involving submergence, underlying compacted soil and higher structural loads, creep deformation under compression pressure have been occurring. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the behavior of compression creep of EPS geofoam through Plaxis 3D software.

Improving performance of buried pipelines using geosynthetics

Pipelines are lifeline structures that provide essential services to communities by transporting water, liquid wastes,oil and gas, andpetroleum products over long distances. Nowadays, nearly 75% of the oil and petroleum products aretransported yearly by pipelines. Likewise, majority of water and gas to world’s urban centers and communitiesare transported by pipelines.

Driving and texting? Stop it, now!

Study reveals how detrimental the use of mobile phones is while driving in India

A study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) has shown how using mobile phones while driving can distract drivers and affect their ability to handle hazardous situations. The results of the study has shown that both calling and texting while driving degrades the performance of a driver.

Supply chain analysis: Combining theory with practice

Supply chains are distributed and decentralised in nature, with multiple player operating in a dynamic and stochastic environment. Activities and decisions are becoming increasingly customer-centric, and there is a deluge of data. However, extracting meaningful information and prescribing effective real-time decision using the data is non-trivial.Our current works are as follows:

Hybrid simulation methodologies for analysing complex systems

System dynamics methodology, discrete-event simulation, and agent based models are powerful techniques to model, understand and analyse complex stochastic and dynamic systems. Hybrid methods that combine simulation with optimisation approaches assist evidence-based robust policy decisions. The applications range across supply chain, transportation, socio-economic and healthcare systems.

Our current research activities are described below:

Algorithms and software for hard optimisation problems

Our group is developing new techniques for solving difficult mixed integer nonlinear and combinatorial optimisation problems (MINLPs). These problems arise in a wide variety of scientific, engineering and business applications ranging from portfolio optimisation to design of logistic networks of a supply chain, scheduling of industrial operations and optimal layout of industrial facilities. Many of these problems are provably hard – all known algorithms to solve these problems take exponential amount of time in the size of the input.

Performance limits of delay constrained communication systems

Classical results in information theory focus on coding theorems which provide sharp guarantees for reliable communication and data compression when one allows for arbitrary delays for achieving a desired probability of error. But in real systems such as multimedia communication systems, delay constraints are fundamental and non-negotiable. For such delay constrained systems, except in rare cases, determining the optimal system performance is a highly intractable problem. Prior to our work, performance limits were derived using disparate techniques and arguments.

Regulating algorithmic high frequency trading and collocation in the Indian securities market: A quantitative approach

The Indian securities market has seen an meteoric increase in algorithmic trading that involves the use of computerised algorithms for determining trading decisions. This usually takes the form of high frequency trading wherein orders are issued with an extremely high frequency. This has been further facilitated by location of servers of traders in physical proximity of the exchange (called colocation). There is concern among regulators worldwide about the impact of algorithmic trading.Prof.

Multi-stage and multi-objective process optimisation

A common problem in process design is the selection of optimal operating condition, which involves considering simultaneously multiple response (output) variables. This type of problem is known as multiple response optimisation (MRO) problems. Multiple response problems are quite prevalent across various disciplines of science and engineering. In this context, responses are the quality characteristics which attribute to the quality of process or product. In this context, responses may be catogorised into three different types, viz.

Game theoretic mechanism design for group decision making

Game theory analyses multi-person decision making where each agent’s welfare is dependent on actions of another agent. We work on game theoretic mechanism design that seeks to construct institutions that lead to desirable outcomes in society. An example of such an institution would be the ‘Boston School Choice’ mechanism that is used to admit students in US public school system. Apart from this, we also study formation bidding rings at auctions.

What heights on ladder of international competitiveness can your firm plan to climb

India may climb in top 20 in country competitiveness ranks, and opportunities to break-out in technological competitiveness seem promising as focal firms of Indian origin (FFIOs) build capabilities for next levels on stages of international competitiveness (IC). However, international competitiveness in emerging industries is less satisfactory (Fig.

Perceptions in Supply Chain Management

SCM is of course, the management of flow of goods from supplier to transporter to production department to sales and eventually to customer. The objective of SCM is to reduce overall costs by introducing effective coordination and cooperation across echelons. Several sophisticated analytical tools and optimization software solutions exist in the marketplace and academic journals to help organizations meet this objective.