Projects

Globally out of the 1.35 million road traffic deaths, more than half of them are amongst the pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. There are more Motorized (Powered) Two Wheelers (MTWs) in Indian cities compared to other modes (10-15%), excluding pedestrian and public transport. Further nearly 34% of total road traffic deaths are attributed to occupants of MTWs annually in India. In spite of their high crash risk, they fulfill the mobility needs of certain segment of commute in urban areas. In contrast, Australia which is one of the sparsely populated developed countries in the world that has nearly one million motorized two and three wheelers. It would be interesting to compare the crash and injury data of MTW for 3 to 4 big cities in Australia with those in Delhi. Also there is a need to examine whether the conditions in which MTWs operate make them more vulnerable. Keeping in view these aspects there is a need to understand: (1) the crash rates and injury patterns in the MTWs across India and Australia (2) the effect of road and traffic environment on the crash risk The project thus aims to : 1. develop a framework for comparing the crash and injury data across different geographical settings (Australia and India) 2. Explore the possibility of using data mining techniques for identifying any underlying relationships among various crash characteristics (occupant, road and traffic related factors) Methodology To achieve these objectives, data would be collected from Delhi and 4 large cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth) in Australia on MTW crashes and injury data. To do a systematic comparison, crash and injury data need to be statistically representative samples from each of these settings as discussed. Further, to develop strategies for safety improvement in the traffic environment with growing MTWs.

To use structural and neurochemical basis of cognitive-affective process for improving predictions of post-surgery outcomes in epilepsy patients from low socioeconomic strata.

The recent advancement in Precision Agriculture which aims to achieve yield maximization with natural resource optimization in farming practices worldwide; has brought the techniques of 'Agri-Photonics' to the forefront. In this regard, the increasing food literacy in consumer market has brought about a sharp increase in the demand of natural and organic food. This rapidly growing sector not only forbid the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, but also stresses on the production of naturally occurring genetic variants of a specific crop which might not have maximum yield capacity. Thus, the need of a photonics-based technique to identify various transgenic plant species in a fast, non-invasive and objective manner for easy segregation of plant varieties in consumer agriculture has become paramount. This project will explore the use of spectroscopy and imaging using terahertz (THz) range (3000 - 30 µm in wavelength or 0.1 × 1012 10 × 1012 Hz in frequency) which is an extremely sensitive non-contact, non-invasive technique to sense different transgenic species based on their characteristic biochemical fingerprints. Initially, through systematic extraction of genetic material of various phenotypes of a specific crop and subsequent spectral characterization using THz time domain spectroscopy will yield the biochemical signature map of these phenotypes in THz range. In the second phase, the same genetic variants will be imaged in-vivo in THz range to explore the viability of this Agri-photonic technique towards phenotype identification. Finally, high power THz sources working in a relatively narrow frequency range will be used to target these frequency 'signature' towards achieving higher signal-to-noise in the THz image formation. This is required for high efficiency classification of transgenic species through numerical analysis using artificial neural network type identifiers.

The project targets to harness the excess electricity (or electricity spillage) generated by solar PV and wind power plants which will be converted into thermal energy, and in turn will be stored in a thermal energy storage system (Thermal battery). The thermal battery is envisaged to store heat at high temperatures (?900°C) and act as heat source for subsequent cogeneration applications. Conventional electrical batteries can store electricity for future usage but their low energy storage capacity and less durability pave way for the recent contender in the area viz. thermal battery. Electrical energy can be efficiently converted into heat and multiple options are available to store it. An overview of the high temperature thermal energy storage (HTTES) is presented below. Alkali-metal carbonate salts can be used for sensible heat storage at high temperature. There are following three systems available for the purpose viz. Raft thermocline, two tank and two media thermocline systems. Latent heat storage is a lucrative HTTES option. Several metals such as Copper (1084°C), Ductile Iron (1149°C) and their alloys, e.g., Yellow Brass (930°C) have melting points in the target temperature range. Several common salts such as NaF (995°C), BaCl2 (962°C) etc. can also be utilized for HTTES. Excess electricity can also be stored by thermochemical process consisting of a pair of reversible redox reactions. In the charging cycle, excess electricity converted into heat is utilized in an endothermic reaction. The excess heat can thus be stored in the products of reaction for a long duration without any energy loss issue. When required, the stored energy can be recovered by initiating the exothermic reaction between the products of the previous reaction. This project will investigate the above options of HTTES and find the most suitable one from performance and economic aspects to substitute electrical batteries for energy storage.

The Indian government has set ambitious targets for renewable energy expansion (175 GW by 2022) to decarbonise the national energy mix. Solar energy forms the core of India's renewable energy plans. While most focus in India so far has remained on solar PV, the pace of development and commissioning of concentrated solar power plants (CSP) has remained slow. Seven CSPs were identified in 2011; only three have so far been completed and remain operational. There is however, growing policy focus on CSP expansion; conservative scenarios suggest up to 5.7 GW will be generated by CSP by 2022. Among other barriers for CSP development, water security is a particularly important issue. The industry's water intensive nature may result in severe implications for water availability and resulting impacts on other industry. Considering that six out of the seven CSPs identified for commissioning are located in arid, desert regions in western India, social acceptance for CSPs may need particular attention by policymakers, project developers and local stakeholders. Five out of these seven plants are located in Rajasthan, India's desert state with acute water shortages, while another is located in the Kutch region of Gujarat (also, extremely water-stressed region). The development of CSPs therefore, without adequate understanding of local concerns is highly contentious, particularly at the community level. Currently, water-CSP nexus has been given very little attention in India. The proposed PhD project will address this gap and highlight important insights into how local conflicts that may arise due to water stress, as a consequence of CSP development may be best managed and resolved. Methodologically, the project will apply a case study approach to examine community concerns, including identifying/ pre-empting pressure points for conflicts. Through qualitative, ethnographic studies, it will investigate how potential conflicts are currently being managed, and whether strategies currently in place have been successful in securing social acceptance of the technology. Consequently, it will also identify where strategies for conflict mitigation have been insufficient and suggest a roadmap for how these could be improved in the future. The student will undertake several months of extended field work that will allow a grounded understanding of the local context through observations, structured questionnaire surveys, and interviews with key stakeholders including community members, industry, and local, state and central governments.

Air pollution is the leading environmental cause of mortality and morbidity in the world. Despite significant progress in air pollution epidemiology, uncertainty in estimating the burden remains large, especially in data poor countries like India. Moreover, whether the relative burden of PM2.5 exposure is similar in high exposure regions (like India, where annual average PM2.5 is >70 µg/m3) and low exposure regions (like Australia where annual average PM2.5 is <10 µg/m3) is not known. This project involves the following key objectives: 1. Improving the ambient PM2.5 exposure estimates by integrating in-situ, satellite and chemical transport model (CTM) based outputs in a machine learning environment at typical urban scales. 2. Improving the health burden estimates of ambient PM2.5 exposure by integrating exposure estimates and local health data in each country. 3. Understanding the expected health benefits from various realistic policies that are being implemented or planned for implementation to curb air pollution. 4. A comparative assessment of different policy scenarios in India (high exposure region) and Australia (low exposure region). Combining the strengths of in-situ, satellite and CTMs, continuous PM2.5 exposure data at highly resolved spatial and time scales will be a key part of this project. The short and long-term impacts of air pollution in Indian and Australian cities will be examined using local health data. Several policies are implemented in Delhi NCR to curb air pollution. In this project, the potential health benefits of such policies will be evaluated and compared with other possible mitigation scenarios.

The greenhouse effect and global warming are the most important issue facing the present day. A number of initiatives are trying to come up with a way to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases. CO2 is a major greenhouse gas which causes global environmental problems. Carbon dioxide's radiative forcing is around 1.74 W m?2, and it is estimated that CO2 is the largest contributor to global warming, accounting for 63% of total radiative forcing. Carbon dioxide is mainly produced from fossil fuels combustion, and it is estimated that more than 31 billion tons of CO2 is produced annually all over the world. The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere already crossed 400 ppm in most places and keeps increasing by approximately 2 ppm per year. The finite supply of fossil resources has driven research activities toward finding other carbon resources for the production of fuels and chemicals. The capture and Utilization of CO2 is highly desirable for mitigating air pollution and for replacing conventional fossil fuels because it is a cheap, nontoxic and abundant C1 feedstock. The major objective of the present proposal is the production of renewable, clean fuels using a highly efficient green photocatalytic route that uses visible light induced photocatalysts and carbon dioxide captured from industrial flue gas effluent. To this purpose several non-toxic, stable visible light induced new heterogeneous nanostructure modified photocatalysts will be prepared, characterized and screened in CO2 to fuels reaction. Some examples of the nanostructures are: ZnTiO3, Co3O4, Fe2O3 and ZnCdS with different co-catalysts such as NiS, Ti3C2, carbon dot and different non-precious metal/non-metal and nanocomposites coupled with other semi-conductor and carbon based materials like graphene, g-C3N4, CNT and MWCNT. Theoretical investigations using DFT calculations will be performed for the rational design of these. The process parameters optimization of the reactions will be performed and the kinetics studies will be undertaken. A suitable model for the photocatalytic reaction will be developed and validated with experiments.

Advances in the field of vaccines have transformed the prevention of many health conditions and helped in improving quality of life. For example, HPV vaccines such as Gradasil® (Merck & Co) has reduced the probability of precancerous abnormalities by 34% in young adults (20-24 years). However, the cost associated with such sophisticated healthcare (Gradasil® costs ~US$ 360 for three-course vaccination) increases the financial burden on patients and healthcare systems, particularly in low-income regions. On a compassionate basis, Merck is selling Gradasil® to GAVI at a break-even cost of US$4.50/dose to reach low-income countries. However, for affordable and sustainable vaccination, studies indicate that the per-dose cost should be as low as US$1- 2. In the need for a long-term strategy to provide affordable vaccines, implementation of continuous processing can lead to faster and more efficient utilization of chromatographic matrices, thereby lowering the cost of goods (COGs). Implementation of process analytical tools (PAT) for monitoring process variations and evaluate its impact on product quality attributes will ensure the robustness of continuous operations and reduce the chances of failure at the manufacturing scale.

UN World Water Development Report predicts an increase in water demand in agricultural sector by 70-90% without improved methods to satisfy the basic feeding demand of the growing world population. Moreover, global climate change is causing steep rise in temperatures, increased temperature variability, changes in levels and frequency of precipitation, a greater frequency of dry spells and droughts and increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. These problems collectively result in plant growth retardation and an overall increase in the stress level of the plants. Stressed plants become susceptible to disease, insect infestation and other maladies causing loss in both quantity and quality of the agricultural produce. Therefore, it is essential to establish a fast, accurate and a non-invasive technique for quantitative assessment of plant hydration levels. This will further help in implementing 'smart' irrigation management reducing water usage and wastage in agriculture. This project will explore spectroscopy and imaging using terahertz (THz) range (3000 - 30 µm in wavelength or 0.1 × 1012 - 10 × 1012 Hz in frequency) which is an extremely sensitive non-contact, non-invasive technique to measure hydration levels. Several representative plants having specific hydration schemes that are available both in Australia and India, such as, mango, banana and bamboo will be initially studied with broadband, THz time-domain spectroscopy and imaging set-up. Standardization protocol and calibration charts of transpirations of all plant species under study will be prepared under normal and drought conditions. In the second phase, high power THz sources working in a relatively narrow frequency range will be used to target the high-frequency THz water signature. This will result in increased image resolution required in a practical, field deployable instrument that can accurately map the water uptake and release by plants.

Fragility and risk assessments of reinforced concrete (RC) structures against various design loads and their combinations is required to be conducted for evaluating structural vulnerability. This is typically done at the design stage. However, during the service (design) life of a civil engineering structure, it is important to investigate the change (increase) in the risk posed to a RC structure on account of multiple hazards such as, the two uncorrelated (non-cascading) independent hazards: earthquake and fire. That is to say, that the risk to the structure as a result of fire may increase if the structure has already been damaged by, e.g. an earthquake; and vice versa. With an aim to evaluate reduction in the desirable design factor of safety due to deterioration of the RC elements (with and without strengthening) over the service-life of a building by using a suitable well-established degradation model, this research proposal plans to investigate the life-cycle risk assessment of RC structures exposed to earthquake and then fire. A series of high repeatability tests will be conducted, by applying cyclic loading (to simulate earthquake damage) to scaled-down RC elements in the Structures Laboratory at the University of Queensland (UQ) and then testing them under heating using the H-TRIS apparatus (to simulate the subsequent fire exposure) in UQ's fire laboratory. Numerical models of the RC elements will be developed at the Multi-Hazard Protective Structures (MHPS) Laboratory at IIT Delhi and validated using these test results. The validated numerical models will then be used for conducting multi-hazard vulnerability assessment of the RC elements under earthquake and fire. Subsequently, risk posed to the structures during its service-life, with degradation of the RC elements due to life-cycle deterioration, earthquake and fire, will be evaluated.