Transportation
Engineering Laboratories
Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi
The
Transportation Engineering Laboratories at the Civil Engineering Department, IIT
Delhi, are state-of-the-art research learning facilities dedicated towards
innovation in the area of Transportation engineering.
This includes various sectors like construction industry, transportation
consulting firms, MoRTH, BRO, aviation sector. Designed to support cutting-edge
research and academic excellence, several laboratories have been established
towards integration of traditional approaches with advanced tools (like
high-end equipment of international standards, and industry-leading software etc).
It is equipped to address the evolving challenges of the modern urban and rural
transportation infrastructure. These labs fosters
research in traffic management, traffic simulations, pavement structural
analysis, sustainable supply chain management, urban planning, geospatial
studies, pavement materials, infrastructure management and transportation
logistics. There are five major laboratories: Pavement Materials Lab, Pavement
Characterization Lab, Sustainable Pavement Materials Lab, Traffic dynamics and
simulation Lab, Transportation Planning and Design Lab, each focusing on
specific aspects of modern technology. These facilities provides
an interdisciplinary platform for researchers, industry professionals, and
students to collaborate, innovate, and contribute to the future of
transportation engineering. Thus enabling enabling the
development of next-generation transportation professionals.
Laboratories
a)
Pavement Materials Lab: This lab focuses on
evaluating various materials used in highway and airport pavements. This lab
evaluates the physical, mechanical properties of pavement construction
materials including Soil, Aggregate, Binders (unmodified bitumen, modified
bitumen), to specification adherence for durability, long term performance, and
strength. Additionally, facilities are available to check materials suitability
for specific site conditions and to predict its performance under real-world
conditions as per international standards.
b)
Pavement Characterization Lab: This lab is specialized
with advanced characterization and scientific analysis of pavement systems. The
lab focuses on evaluating the mechanical and engineering properties of pavement
mixtures to ensure their performance, durability, and sustainability. This lab
looks at design, maintenance, and rehabilitation road pavements through
in-depth analysis of material behaviour under the specific conditions seen
across the country. The laboratory has facilities to simulate various traffic
and environmental conditions in laboratory.
Additionally,
the laboratory research focuses on structural design of flexible and rigid
pavements for Highways and Airport Pavements, Pavement Management Systems,
Quality Control, Life cycle costing, Techno-economic analysis of pavement
systems.
c)
Sustainable pavement materials Lab: This lab focuses on developing, and characterizing environmentally friendly and
sustainable pavement materials for transportation infrastructure in the
country. Additionally, material testing and performance evaluation are
conducted to assess the index of eco-friendly,
low energy consumption, cost-effective, and sustainable pavements
by incorporating recycled, renewable, and lower-carbon materials. This lab
specializes in innovative technology, characterization of pavement materials
including emulsion, cutback, stabilized soil systems.
d)
Traffic dynamics and simulation Lab: This lab
specializes with advanced methodologies on studying vehicular
traffic (including surveys, speed, flow and density measurements), pedestrian
dynamics (i.e. study of people movement), and level of Service and capacity
analysis of highway infrastructure. This lab makes use computational tools, simulation
software, and data analytics to analyse traffic behaviour, optimize
transportation networks, and improve urban mobility. Advances analysis and
simulation tools are available to design signalised intersection, roundabouts
and traffic signals at city and regional level.
Additionally,
the research covers transportation demand modelling, Network design, facility
Location Models.
e)
Transportation Planning and design Lab: This lab focuses
on the development, optimization, and evaluation of transportation systems. It
integrates principles of urban and regional planning, traffic engineering, and
sustainability to create efficient and safe transportation networks.
Additionally,
the research covers Highway alignment, establishment of design controls and
criteria, elements of design. Horizontal and vertical highway alignment and
profile. Geometric design of intersections and interchanges. Basic concepts of
planning at urban and regional levels. Conventional and current approaches for
travel demand estimation. Implementation of models
Software Tools
The
labs utilize a comprehensive suite of industry-standard software to support
research and education. Some of the key software tools used include:
·
PTV Tutor Academic License Software for advance Traffic Planning,
Modelling and Simulation and digitally reproduces the traffic patterns of all
road users on a microscopic scale.
·
Pedestrian
Evacuation with smoke dynamics Software (building EXODUS
software V6.3) for Simulation of different human
behaviour in fire evacuation from any type of buildings, metro stations etc.
·
SIDRA
for the design and evaluation of single intersections and advanced traffic
modelling to improve road network performance and reduce congestion.
·
NGENE for
generating experimental designs for stated choice surveys, and doing
experiments consist of a series of hypothetical choice tasks that are used to
elicit behaviour and preferences from consumers, patients, farmers, travellers,
and other.
·
NLOGIT
4.0 software for estimation, model simulation and
analysis of multinomial choice data, such as brand choice, transportation
mode.
·
GAUSS software
for the solution of numerical problems in statistics, econometrics, time-series,
optimization and 2D- and 3D-visualization.
·
TRAZER software is
used for camera based Automated Traffic Counting and Classification (ATCC)
software technology that is used widely for Urban Planning to study the city
traffic. The software tool automatically detects and classifies moving vehicles
in a traffic video stream
The
Transportation Engineering Laboratories at IIT Delhi serves as a vital hub for
research and innovation in the transportation and pavement construction
industry. By leveraging cutting-edge software and methodologies, the lab
contributes to the advancement of traffic management, planning, simulation and
sustainable and efficient pavement construction practices. By bringing academic
research with practical applications, the laboratory at IIT Delhi reinforces
its commitment to excellence, sustainability, and global leadership in civil
engineering.
Faculty Members(5)
Prof.
R. R. Kalaga |
Areas of
Interest: Mass Transit Planning, Traffic Flow Modelling and Traffic
Safety E-mail: rrkalaga[at]civil.iitd.ac.in |
Prof.
A. K. Swamy |
Areas of
Interest: Modelling Behaviour of Asphaltic Materials, Continuum Damage Modelling,
Pavement Engineering, Rheology, Recycling of Pavement Materials E-mail: akswamy[at]civil.iitd.ac.in |
Prof.
Manoj M. |
Areas of Interest: Transportation Planning,
Activity/Travel Demand Modelling, Long-Term Mobility Decisions, Travel
Behaviour Data Collection, Built Environment and Travel Behaviour,
Econometric Modelling E-mail: manojm[at]civil.iitd.ac.in |
Prof.
Nezamuddin |
Areas of
Interest: Transportation Network Analysis, Transportation Logistics and
Optimization, Traffic Operations, Intelligent Transportation Systems E-mail: nezam[at]civil.iitd.ac.in |
Prof.
Pramesh Kumar |
Areas of
Interest: Settlement in Landfills, Gas Generation from Landfills, GIS
Based Landfill Management, Bioreactor Landfill, Infiltration Characteristics
of Different Vegetation and Landuse, Watershed Management, Water
Contamination and Remediation, Open Channel Hydraulics, Contaminant Hydrology E-mail: chakma[at]civil.iitd.ac.in |