Civil Engineering - Research

The faculty in Civil Engineering come with academic training from various reputed institutes in India and abroad. The diverse background of the faculty helps to bring in different perspectives to teaching and research to the students in Civil Engineering. The research activities in Civil Engineering broadly fall under the following specializations.

Building Materials and Construction Management: The research in Building materials and construction technology at IIT Palakkad is focussed on the development of sustainable and modern construction materials for building systems and its implementation. The research laboratory facilities developed are generic with respect to materials research and can be used for physical and mechanical characterization of all construction materials. The near future plan is focussed on developing a laboratory for durability testing with emphasis on concrete and corrosion. Some of the current work includes improving robustness characteristics of special concretes such as self-compacting concrete (SCC), design and prototype applications of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) and improving the durability characteristics of textile reinforced concrete (TRC). Another recent area of research being pursued is the utilization of low grade clay in building materials including its classification as per usage potentia.

Faculty: Dr. Senthilkumar V., Dr. Sunitha K. Naya


Environmental Engineering: Research in Environmental Engineering at IIT Palakkad broadly focuses on understanding physical, chemical, and biological processes in the environment, various water quality issues, process development of water and wastewater treatment system, and groundwater remediation.

Faculty: Dr. Praveena Gangadharan


Geotechnical Engineering: The geotechnical engineering group in IIT Palakkad is focused on areas like Reinforced Soil & Ground Improvement Techniques, Geosynthetics: Geotechnical and Geo-environmental applications, Green Geotechnics, Physical and numerical modelling in Geotechnical Engineering, Deep Foundations, Soil Stabilisation and Soil-Structure Interaction.

Faculty: Dr. Divya P.V., Dr. Rakesh J. Pillai, Dr. Sudheesh T. K.


Structural Engineering: The research potential includes the theoretical and experimental research related to the following areas: Buckling and post-buckling behaviour of steel structure, Concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) members, Reinforced, and prestressed concrete structures, Structural evaluation of deteriorating structures, Non-destructive testing and evaluation, Structural dynamics and Earthquake engineering with an emphasis on vibration control of structures, Passive, active and semi-active feedback control of structures, Nonlinear dynamic behaviour of structures and Sub structure shaking table test.

Faculty: Dr. Anil Kumar M. V .,Dr. Madhu Karthik M., Dr. Sanjukta Chakraborty, Dr. Gokulnath C


Transportation Engineering: Transportation engineering is the application of science and mathematics to enable safe and efficient transport of people and goods. The specific research areas in which the faculty at IIT Palakkad work are pavement materials, design, maintenance, and rehabilitation; pavement forensic evaluation; life cycle assessment; sustainable infrastructure; road network analysis, urban and regional transport planning, traffic engineering, transport safety etc.

Faculty: Prof. Tom V. Mathew, Dr. B. K. Bhavathrathan, Dr. C. V. Veena Venudharan


Water Resources Engineering: The research capabilities of Water Resources Engineering group include both simulation and field scale studies in the mentioned areas. Watershed management and developing best management practices using hydrologic models; ungauged basin predictions; groundwater and stream-aquifer interactions; climate and land use change projection and impact assessment on hydrology and water resources; quantification of uncertainty in regional scale climate change studies; forecasting and mitigation studies of hydro-climatic extremes such as droughts and floods; utilizing climate oscillation information for long term prediction and planning of water resources availability; exploring advanced statistical techniques for simulation and analysis of hydro-climatic datasets; teleconnection and impact analysis of large scale ocean atmospheric phenomena with food-water-energy nexus.

Faculty:  Dr. Athira P., Dr. Sarmistha Singh, Dr. Subhasis Mitra


PhD Students: Aayillia K Jayasidhan, Abhijith A, Ajeesh K, Alpha Lukose, Athira K, B Anish Kini (External), Bhavinlal K, Dhanya K. A., Femin C Varghese, Gopika Rajagopal, Hari Krishnan K P, Jainet P J, Jose George, K C Aswathy, K. Nitheesh, Meghna V S, Mithulraj M, Musaib Ahmad, Neeraj C R, Nithyasree P V, Reiva Sibi, S Abhishek, Sabarija A M, Sakila Saminathan, Shilpa R Nair, T R Sreeshna, Twinkle S

MS (by Research) Students: Anagha Prabhakar, Anchu Ajayakumar, Haleema Lameez Thajuddeen, Nikunj Dhanani, Shubhang Jain, Sidhan

Staff: Abdul Rahees M P (Junior Technician), Babu Kumar B (Junior Technician), Anandlal M (Junior Technical Superintendent), Jithin Thomas A (Junior Technician), Muhammed Nayif ct (Junior Technical Superintendent)