1. technology and computing

Probable PhD topics for PhD admissions-July 2015
Sl
No.
1.
2.
3.
Discipline
(Supervisor/ CoSupervisor)
Chemistry
(Dr.
A.
K.
Choubey,
CoSupervisor:
Dr.
Amit Ranjan)
Chemistry
(Dr.
Debashis
Panda)
Research title
Research Problem
Nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur containing heterocyclic compounds are
key building blocks used to develop compounds of biological or
medicinal interests to chemists. It is proposed to synthesize some new
compounds and to evaluate their biological activities after elucidating
the structure by involving different analytical tools.
Catalysts of nanometer dimensions are among the most important
& industrial catalysts, with applications ranging from chemical
of manufacturing to energy conversion and storage. The ultimate limit of
analytical sensitivity is the detection of the dynamics of an individual
catalyst. At the individual particle level, the catalytic activity is not
understood in depth. Revealing such behavior requires single-molecule
imaging & spectroscopic measurements. By analyzing the behavior of
individual molecule/catalysts, single molecule imaging methods
provide access to details of a population’s characteristics that are
obscured by ensemble averaging. It is certainly an enormous
challenge to acquire real-time, simultaneous information on the
structure, chemical bonding, and activity of a single
nanocatalyst.
Pre-requisite for research
Synthesis of Novel
Heterocyclic
Compounds
of
Biological Interest
M. Sc.
Chemistry
Single-Molecule
Imaging
Spectroscopy
Nanocatalysts
M. Sc.
in Physical
Chemistry/Physics
Chemistry
Development
&
(Dr.
Debashis Characterization of
Panda)
Nanobiocatalysts for
efficient degradation
of cellulose
In
To minimize the dependence on imported petroleum products, M.Sc.
in
biofuels are currently used as transport fuel. Cellulosic ethanol, a Bioscience
biofuel is generally produced from the depolymerization of
polysaccharides. The effectiveness of depolymerization methods is
still debatable. To minimize the production cost and enhance the
catalytic efficiency requires innovative design and development of
Organic
Chemistry/
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4.
Chemistry
(PI: Dr. Debashis
Panda
Co-PI: Dr. Atul
Sharma)
Development
of
Nanocatalysts
towards
Cellulose
Degradation
using
single-particle
approach
5.
Petroleum
Development
of
Engineering
Gels for Improving
(Dr.
A.
K. Sweep Efficiency and
Choubey,
Co- Water Shut off
Supervisor:
Dr. Jobs in Oil & Gas
Amit Ranjan)
Reservoirs
6.
Chemical
Engineering
(Dr. M. S. Bala)
Hydrogen & Natural
Gas
storage
by
Adsorption
for
Vehicular
Application.
catalysts. Assembling of engineered/wild Enzymes on
Nanosurface
may offer an excellent Nanobiocatalyst for
effective degradation of cellulose. This exciting area of research lies
in the domain of Nanobiotechnology.
Necessity of Alternative Energy becomes unavoidable due to limited
resource of fossil fuels. Ever increasing the energy gap between
Supply & demand results greater energy crisis. However, the effective
use of solar energy can help greatly to reduce this gap even without
causing any pollution to the environment. Solar energy is generally
stored in the thermal energy storage (TES) systems. However, the
limited thermal conductivity poses a serious threat to such systems.
The enhancement of thermal conductivity of the phase change
materials (PCMs) is generally tuned with addition additives. The
nanosized
materials
(nanoparticles/nanoclusters/nanomaterials)
having excellent thermal conductivity are ideal choices for PCMnanocomposites. Synthesis, Characterizization & Application of
PCM-Nanocomposites still remaining one of the highly
demanding research areas.
Gel systems of polymers such as polyacrylamide or partially
hydrolyzed polyacrylamide and non-polymer chemicals using cross linking agents are highly effective in permeability modification in
hydrocarbon bearing reservoir rocks to enhance the oil recovery
during waterflooding. They have the potential to improve sweep
efficiency and reduce water production. Gels also increase the
effectiveness of waterflooding and other displacement type enhanced
oil recovery processes.
This study is to achieve the Department of Energy targets for Natural
Gas (180 V/V) & Hydrogen (5.5 wt %) gas storage.
M.Sc.
in
Nanoscience/
Energyscience
Chemistry/
B. Tech. in Chemical/
Petroleum Engg.
B. Tech (Chemical) & M.
Tech (Chemical)
2|P age
7.
8.
9.
Adsorptive
Desulfurization
of
Diesel/ Gasoline.
Chemical
Medium/high
1.
Design molecular structure of membranes with suitable dopes Basic chemistry, Molecular
Engineering/
temperatures fuel cell for higher temperatures applications
dynamics
simulation,
Chemistry
membranes
2.
Study proton transport in these membranes
Quantum
chemistry
(Dr. Milan Kumar)
calculations
Chemical
Modeling of losses in Study various losses and modeling of those losses in Vanadium redox Basic chemical engineering
courses, such as transport
Engineering/
Vanadium
redox flow battery
phenomena and chemical
Chemistry/
flow batteries
reaction
kinetics,
Mathematics
electrochemistry, and basic
(Dr. Milan Kumar)
mathematics for engineers
Chemical
CO2 capture using Carbon dioxide (CO2) is known as the main greenhouse gas that
Engineering
ionic
liquids: causes global warming. To mitigate greenhouse gas effects, carbon
(Dr.
Rakesh experiments
and dioxide capture has turned into an extensively investigated topic
Kumar)
molecular modeling
nowadays. Current technologies in CO2 capture mainly consist of
absorption by amine based solvents such as monoethanolamine,
diethanolamine
and
methyldiethanolamine
through
carbamate/carbonate formation. Several drawbacks are associated with
these systems like; insufficient carbon dioxide capture capacity,
degradation of reagents and thermal stability, equipment corrosion and
high energy consumption during regeneration.
Ionic liquids (ILs) have shown tremendous scope for CO2 capture. In
general Ionic liquids are organic salts with melting point (m.p.)
<100°C, and have been explored as nonvolatile and reversible CO2
absorbents because of their high CO2 solubility. The CO2 solubility
and selectivity can be tuned by choice of cation, anion, and
substituents of the ionic liquids. A key feature of ILs is that their
physical properties can be tailored by judicious selection of cation,
anion, and substituents. To gain insight into the nature of CO2
3|P age
interaction with ionic liquids with different anion in the gas phase and
its solubility for various cation/anion combinations can be evaluated
by molecular modeling based on Density functional theories (DFT).
10.
Materials Science Nanoscience
and Nanomaterials for oil and gas applications
and Engineering
nanotechnology
(Dr. Amit Ranjan)
11.
Renewable Energy
(Dr. Atul Sharma,
Co-Supervisor- Dr.
A. Shukla)
Utilisation
and
development of the
phase
change
materials for building
applications
12.
Physics/Renewabl
e energy
(Dr. A. Shukla,
Co-Supervisor- Dr.
Atul Sharma,)
Modeling
and
development
of
thermal regulation of
Photovoltaic
cells
using Phase change
Materials
Materials
Science
or
Chemical Engineering or
Metallurgical Engnieering or
Mechanical Egineering or
Physics or Chemistry or
Polymer
Science
and
Engineering
M. Sc. (Physics/Electronics)
or
B.Tech/M.Tech.
(Mechanical/Chemical/Elec
trical engineering)
The aim of this Ph.D. research study is to develop new knowledge
with integrated technological solutions that will enable us to reduce
energy consumption in buildings. At the same time we expect to
satisfy the whole range of end user needs such as comfort, aesthetics,
costs, operability, reliability and functionality. This study also considers
the modern state of art in investigations and developments of Phase
Change Materials (PCMs) perspective for thermal energy storage
(heating/cooling) in the range of temperatures from 10oC to 40oC. The
problems associate with the application of PCMs with regard to the
selection of materials and the methods to contain them will be
focused. Thermo-physical properties of potential PCMs as well as the
developed materials will be summarized and data on long-term
characteristics in the course of repeated cycles of fusion and
solidification will also be analyzed.
To regulate the increase in Photo Voltaic (PV) panel temperature, the M. Sc. (Physics)
proposed research will explore the possibility of using Phase Change
Materials (PCM). We will model heat transfer equations to compute
the optimum amount of PCM required to absorb excess heat during
the operational time, considering the energy balance for PV module
using different PCMs taking into account of possible varying weather
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13.
Physics
(Dr. A. Shukla)
Muon capture rates
for double beta decay
14.
Applied
Mathematics
(Dr.
M.
Rajpoot)
15.
Geophysics
Reservoir
(Dr. Satish Kumar characterization
Sinha)
using seismic and
well data
Dispersion Relation
Preserving Schemes
K. for Dispersive and
Non-Dispersive
Systems
conditions such as wind speed and temperature variation, particularly
in the context of Indian climatic conditions for selecting the
appropriate PCM.
To extract the mass of neutrino, it is necessary to have good nuclear
structure models for calculating the nuclear transition matrix elements
(NTME) involved reliably. Large number of theoretical studies for
various candidate nuclei, for double beta decay, using Shell model,
Quasi particle Random Phase approximation (QRPA) and other
models have been carried out so that the calculated NTME can be
established to be reliable. Study of Muon capture rates for double beta
decay nuclei may be quite relevant for fixing the reliability of the
double beta decay matrix element calculations and precise
measurements of neutrino mass as both involve the same set of nuclei
and weak interaction.
The main emphasis will be to include the non-linear and viscous
effects to shallow/deep water wave equations with considering
varying depth instead of constant depth. Furthermore, in this case we
have to consider f-plane approximation of linearized rotating shallow
water equations (LRSWE), to study inertia-gravity waves, in which one
takes Coriolis parameter (f) as a constant. This can be extended for the
case of linear as well as nonlinear shallow water equations (e.g. to
study the Rossby waves) with β-plane model, where Coriolis parameter
vary with latitude (θ). In present work we will use some high accuracy
compact finite difference schemes for the solution of wave and flow
problems which should be extended for other numerical
methodologies such as finite element and spectral element methods.
Focus of this research is on petroleum exploration using seismic
technologies. Results from seismic data processing and interpretation
will be integrated with wireline log data for basin modeling. Various
types of seismic pre-stack and post-stack attributes including inversion
will be utilized for reservoir characterization.
M. Sc. (Physics)
Familiarity
with
one
programming
language/
MATLAB
M.Sc.
Geology)
(Geophysics/
5|P age
16.
17.
18.
Geology
(Dr. A. K. Singh)
Organic
petrology
and
geochemical
characterization of
Permian
coal
deposits of Godavari
Valley
Coalfields,
India: Implications to
depositional
environment
and
hydrocarbon source
potential
Geoinformatics
High
resolution
(Dr.
Susham outdoor scanning of
Biswas)
corridor and critical
installations
for
urban planning and
emergency response
systems
Geoinformatics
Geospatial data for
(Dr.
Susham Soundscaping
Biswas)
Area:
Sound
modeling,
web programming,
Laser/LiDAR (Light
Detection
and
Ranging),
Image
processing
The emphasis of the proposal is to evaluate the Godavari Valley coals M.Sc./ M.Tech. in Geology
on the basis of its petrographical and geochemical behavior and
attempt will be made to reconstruct the depositional condition of the
basin based on the petrographic framework. Based on the petrochemistry of the coals, hydrocarbon, the potential of Godavari coals
will also be appraised. Since this particular area is still unexplored in
India, the proposed work carries huge importance in finding the
possible source of hydrocarbons in various coal seams of Godavari
coalfields, India.
Detailed terrain information is required for urban planning, Knowledge of remoste
management and disaster mitigation operations. Laser data, sensing, scanning, GIS with
photographs, images are important source for deriving such data. programming skills.
Integration, processing, and intelligent system development using
above data is a challenge. The research will focus in eveloving such
system.
There is interest to develop technology to provide a layer of audio Good programming
information over the image/map servers, e.g., Google Earth, using computational skill
available audio files, so a user while viewing image/map information
can also hear the sound specific to any location. The proposed
technology is important as current image/map servers only provide
visual information with few audio files which can be heard on playing
these (which are already uploaded to web). Unlike visual information
the audio information is discrete, depends on the place where an audio
file is uploaded. People are uploading large number of audio files,
however continuous uninterrupted stream of audio specific to
locations could not be heard. The research will work on computation
of sounds reaching at any and every location of terrain on map/image
6|P age
and
server using the sound files uploaded in the surrounding. It will use
geospatial data as available on map servers and sound propagation
modeling. Thus, like visual images, it will provide continuous audio
experience of the terrain as user moves over the image/map server.
19.
Geoinformatics
Route planning using
(Dr.
Susham modern
surveying
Biswas)
technique
Area: Use of Satellite
image/GPS(Global
Positioning
System)/GIS
(Geographic
Information System)
for laying out of
pipeline
20.
English Literature Diasporic Literature
(Dr.
Saurabh
Mishra)
Establishing connectivity between two places over terrain is a
challenge. Different pipeline projects over the grounds need to handle
this challenge. In existing practices engineers primarily use the
available maps to decide manually the possible route for laying out the
pipelines. This practice often leads to suboptimal decision and loss of
resources.
Recent developments in geospatial data procurement and its
processing can give a better alternative to it. High resolution data such
as LiDAR/ Laser scanned data can provide dense 3D point cloud of
very high density and accuracy. Photograph or RGB information
additionally available with laser scanned data help in giving raster
information for the survey area. The data can be integrated with
GPS/DGPS (Differential GPS) position information to register it
globally. Comprehensive, accurate, registered geospatial information
can be processed to extract different terrain features. Once the terrain
features are determined possible corridors for laying out of pipeline
can be worked upon with necessary algorithms.
Indian-English fiction in the past few decades has left to us a
contribution of writers which includes legendary figures such as V.S. Naipaul, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan, Raja Rao, Khushwant
Singh, Ruskin Bond etc. We have also witnessed sound literary
statements of authority and popularity in the works of female writers
like Anita Desai, Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Jhabvala, Nayantara
Sahgal, Shashi Deshpande, Uma Parmeswaram, Bharati Mukherjee etc.
Being a viable part of the exodus to west, the migrant writers have
Background in remote
sensing/GIS. Ability to
develop algorithm
M.A. (English)
7|P age
21.
English Literature( Indian
Dr.
Saurabh Drama
Mishra)
expressed the loyalty to their experiences, sentiments and growth by
giving a true reflection of all these in their script.
Their achievement can further be analyzed on the basis of appropriate
characters that are generated by them. These characters have in them
all what concerns and describes a migrant’s status in reference to either
being an 'Expatriate' or 'Immigrant'.
English Drama in India stands as the tallest and richest in tradition. In fact the M.A. (English)
very spirit of the Indianness coins by the virtue of traditions, beliefs
and values which the drama propagates. Tracing its roots in the
revered Vedic era, drama has been celebrated throughout the ages.
The peregrination of Indian English Drama has been the canvas
portrayal of diffidence until the literary wizard like- Rabindranath
Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and Harindranath Chatopadhyay occupied the
stage in the pre- independence era. Their plays were largely inspired in
soul from the deep rooted beliefs and values of the Indian soil-the
‘Indian Sensibility’. The prime flag bearers of the genre were great
playwrights like Girish Karnad, Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Mahesh
Dattani, Uma Parmeswaran and Vijay Tendulkar.
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22.
English Literature
(Dr.
Saurabh Mapping Bollywood
Mishra)
Indian Cinema-the Bollywood has grown many folds over the past 100 M.A. (English)
years of its presence around us. Its pot-pourri of ingredients and the
melodrama has won hearts not only in India but worldwide too.
Invested heavily with the wide variety of cultural and semantic
variations, over the period of time, the popular Hindi cinema has been
seen as an appropriate vehicle of expression by the directors & the
playwrights. It is indeed literature in motion-mapping society, its
events and the various cycles of changes that the elements of society
have undergone in all these years.
It is in this regard that Cinema becomes appropriate mirror to the
societal issues, hence appropriately deemed as kin to the elaborate
literary family. Indian Cinema has a wide variety of issues to be
explored and researched like: man-woman relationships of various
eras, adaptations, feminism, communication patterns, and lyrical
patterns being just few in the long list of possibilities available.
23.
English Literature Feminism and Film In the year 1975 Laura Mulvey in her famous and erstwhile work- M.A. (English)
(Dr.
Saurabh Theory
“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, linked the process of
Mishra)
spectator identification to sexual difference. It was through the work
of Laura Mulvey that the feminist theory of spectatorship was
highlighted and put forth. Mulvey drew heavily from the Lacanian and
Freudian theories and coupled these with the erstwhile apparatus
theory, with the desired pinch of gender, to punch out the feminist
idea of spectatorship.
The oppressive ideology and the stereotyping of women in films
became a prime concern. From there on the larger aspect of the
feminist movement had been to achieve the transformation of the
image of women in cinema and society as a whole.
9|P age
24.
25.
Petroleum
Engineering
(Dr.
U.
D.
Dwivedi,
Co-Supervisors:
Prof. C. K. Jain
and Dr. Amit
Ranjan)
Early Detection and
Avoidance of Drill
Pipe Sticking using
Signal Processing &
Machine Learning
Electrical
Development
and
Engineering
Testing of Wavelet
(Dr. U D Dwivedi) Modulated Inverters
in Renewable Energy
based
Grid-tied
Distributed
Generations (DGs)
Pipe sticking is one of the most important and challenging issue in
drilling operations. There are numerous causes that can be attributed
to pipe sticking, and it is broadly classified into two groups:
mechanical pipe sticking (MPS) and differential pipe sticking (DPS).
Mechanical sticking normally occurs because of solid pack off while
differential sticking results due to differential pressure between drilling
fluid hydrostatic head and formation pressure. Drilling operations are
often affected by differential pipe sticking which results in significant
increase in total well cost and downtime. These problems become
more prevalent and severe while drilling highly inclined, horizontal,
multilaterals, re-entry, and extended reach wells where cost on
remedial actions can contribute up to 40% of total well cost. In the
past, standard techniques have been developed to solve a specific type
of pipe sticking upon its occurrence, but early detection, diagnosis, and
avoidance is more useful and economical than solving it. The focus of
the proposed work is to develop automatic detection and classification
methods for pipe sticking by processing drilling data using advanced
digital signal processing and machine learning.
Wavelet based techniques have been extensively used in various power
engineering applications. Recently, wavelet has also been proposed to
generate switching signal for single-phase pulse-width-modulated
(PWM) dc-ac inverter. The main advantage of the wavelet modulated
(WM) scheme is that a single synthesis function, derived using wavelet
theory, can be used to generate the switching signal as well as to model
the inverter output which is not possible with other modulation
techniques. But, unlike other popular PWM schemes e.g. sinusoidal
PWM, which offers independent control to both magnitude and
frequency of fundamental inverter output voltage, the existing WM
scheme can only control the frequency of the fundamental. The main
emphasis of the research work to be carried out is to find feasible
M. Tech in Petroleum /
Computer
Science/
Instrumentaion Control /
Mechanical
/Electrical,
Electroncis/System
Enginering
or M.Sc. in
Physical & specialisation in
electronics
OR
B. Tech in
Petroleum/Chemical Engg.
from RGIPT (CPI 7.5 and
above)
Desairable: Good
Programming Skill
M. Tech in Electrical
Engineering
from
an
IIT/NIT or similar institute
only
Excellent
Programming
Skill/ Good Knowledge of
power electronics related
hardware and/or a real-time
digital simulator (RTDS)
10 | P a g e
solutions to the magnitude control problem and to apply it in grid-tied
inverter based distributed generations.
26.
Petroleum
Engineering
(Dr. Tushar
Sharma)
Characterization and
performance
evaluation of
polyacrylamide
enabling
“Nanofluids” to
improve sweep
efficiency of
Chemical-EOR
processes
27.
Petroleum
Engineering
(Dr. Tushar
Sharma)
Use of clay
nanoparticles to
develop Pickering
foams for HPHT
applications such as
Foam-EOR
processes
28.
Petroleum
Engineering
(Dr.Shivanjali
Sharma)
This research work will focus on the developemt of new knowledge B. Tech in
on the synthesis of nanofluids using oilfield polymers of different Chemical/Petroleum
molecular weight and compared to investigate the effects of molecular Engineering
weight, nanoparticle, and other parameters on conventional polymer
based EOR processes. Physicochemical and rheological studies will
also be performed on synthesized nanofluids to get more insights on
its reservoir stability and behavior improving the rate of oil recovery.
This research work will deal with the sythesis of stable clay based B.
Tech
Pickering foams for reservoir equivalent high pressure high Chemical/Petroleum
temperature (HPHT) applications such as enhanced oil recovery. The Engineering
work will use small size clay nanoparticles to stabilize the deformation
of classical foams at HPHT conditions. The clay nanoparticles are the
part of reservoir as a result of their natural origin hence, expected to
develop a promising technique by reducing the extent of reservoir
contamination as compared to other nanoparticles.
Development
of As the depth of exploratory and development wells in the major B.Tech
water based drilling sedimentary basins have increased, oil operators have been faced with Chemical/Petroleum
fluid and study of alternative of starting with larger and more costly wellbores. Deep drilling Engineering
their thermal stability of shale requires strict adherence to prescribed mud properties.
Main problems of wellbore stability are associated with shale bodies
which undergo spontaneous self-dispersion upon contact with water or
11 | P a g e
in
in
conventional drilling muds. Any solution to the problems of well bore
stability must deal primarily with preventing self-dispersion of shales
exposed in the well-bore.Oil based drilling fluid are costly and hazardous
for environment. This problem could be solved by using water based
drilling fluid if the wellbore stability issue could be solved.Another
problem with shales is that of thermal stability. The earlier conventional
mud systems are not stable at high temperatures. In order to improve their
performance certain polymer systems are to be added and a new drilling
mud system is to be developed.The research will work on synthesizing
new water based drilling fluid which are inhibitive in nature and also
thermally stable to be used in deep reservoirs.
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