Industrial Visit to the National Institute of Rock Mechanics (NIRM)

93 students of the 2^nd year, from the Department of Civil Engineering, MVJCE, embarked on an Industrial Visit to the National Institute of Rock Mechanics (NIRM), Outer Ring Road, Eshwar Nagar, Banashankari 2^nd Stage, Bengaluru, on Wednesday (27.02.2019) and Thursday (28.02.2019). Faculty members Prof. R Muralidhara (HOD-Civil), Prof. Shivakumar N V, Prof. Lakshmi V and Prof. N Vetrivel accompanied the students. One of the notable alumni of MVJCE, Department of Civil Engineering, Mrs. Praveena Das Jennifer, Scientist, NIRM,  helped with knowledge sharing and guided the students during the visit.

The main objective of the visit was to create awareness on Engineering Geological Investigation Techniques and its broader area of research in Seismology, Rock Testing, Fracture Mechanics, Numerical Modelling and Instrumentation. The National Institute of Rock Mechanics has been an autonomous Research Institute under the Ministry of Mines, Government of India, since 1988. NIRM is a premier centre for research and consultancy in the field of rock mechanics and rock engineering, and is the only one of its kind in Southeast Asia. NIRM offers its expertise in the following broad disciplines:

1. Engineering Geological Investigations
2. Engineering Geophysical Investigations
3. In-situ Geo-technical Investigations
4. Engineering Seismology and Seismotectonics
5. Rock Blasting and Excavation Engineering
6. Numerical Modelling and Instrumentation
7. Geo-mechanics and Ground Control
8. Material Testing and NDT
9. Rock Testing and Fracture Mechanics

The visit started with a Welcome Address given by Dr. H S Venkatesh, Director of NIRM. This was followed by a lecture by Dr. D S Subramanya, on the significance of Geotechnical Engineers in rock mechanics, underground Structural Construction and the different methods adopted to increase durability, rock blasting and the risks involved in excavation of the soil underneath.

Further, the students were taken to the laboratory where they viewed all the instruments used for Site Investigation. Mrs. Praveena Das Jennifer, Scientist, NIRM and Mr. A Rajan Babu gave an introduction on the set up of the different instruments which are used for recording the readings to check fractures underneath, and the strength or load bearing capacity of the soil.

A brief introduction was given on Engineering Seismology also, where the process of setting up geophones and potentiometers reading were discussed in detail. The importance of seismology was explained, along with a small glimpse of Numerical modeling.

The visit was a fruitful one. We would like to thank our Principal Dr. Nagaraj Sitaram, Vice-Principal Prof. M Brindha, and Prof. R. Muralidhara, HOD-Civil, MVJCE, for giving this opportunity to enhance the student’s knowledge in various branches of Civil Engineering. The knowledge gained by the students from this Industrial Visit will be go a long way, to embellish their future.

EVENT OUTCOME:

Through this Visit, the students got an opportunity to explore the aspects of Civil Engineering through Interdisciplinary research. This satisfies PO:4 – Conduct Investigation on Complex Problems, PO:5 – Modern Tool Usage and PO:12 – Lifelong Learning in the field of Civil Engineering.