QUALITY ASSURANCE AND CONTROL IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
DR. MIR IQBAL FAHEEM AND DR. VELLANKI S.S. KUMAR
Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) is an essential part of any construction process to improve the quality and uniformity of the project. The need for QA/QC in construction projects has increased considerably in recent times due to significant changes, advancement in technology and high expectation of the users. The quality assurance and control maintains uniformity in construction process and ensures more economical utilization of materials resulting in significant reduction in cost to the users. The additional cost involved in QA/QC is directly proportional to the benefits. It is observed that the cost of involving QA/QC is 1.5% to 2% of the construction cost. On the other hand, the direct and indirect economic returns from the quality control are 5% to 15% of the total construction cost and even more. A methodology has been developed for QA/QC in construction industry. The methodology accomplishes the desired quality in construction process.
Quality, Assurance, Control, Concrete activity, Tests, Methodology, Construction projects
Download
Research Articles
BEHAVIOUR OF THE EMERGING REALTY, INFRASTRUCTURE & INDUSTRIAL CONSTRUCTION SECTORS VIS-A-VIS THE INDIAN BUSINESS CYCLE
DR. MEDHA JOSHI
This paper is an inquiry into the co-movements between the business cycle of the Indian economy and the Industrial Construction, Realty and Industrial & Infrastructure Construction sectors in terms of real and financial indicators. Until about the year 2000, the Realty, Construction and Infrastructure (RCI) activities were not in the "public" domain in the sense that most of the companies doing this business were either proprietorship or private limited companies. From the year 2002 onwards, several RCI companies began to convert themselves into public limited companies and getting themselves listed on the stock exchanges in order to access capital from the public and the organized sector financial institutions. The entry of these companies into the stock market has naturally been accompanied by availability of data on their financial performance in the form of published annual accounts. The listed companies have become a part of the regular stock market. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) have constructed special stock price indices for the RCI companies and are reporting them on a regular basis. This gives an opportunity to study the Indian RCI sector vis-à-vis the indicators of India's macro economic performance as well as with respect to the movements in the Indian stock markets.
Business Cycle, Construction indices
Download
Research Articles
INFLUENCE OF SIZE OF THE AGGREGATE ON STRENGTH OF SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE
DR. VINAYKUMAR C. H. AND DR. S. N. TIRTHAKAR
Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) is most revolutionary development of this century in the concrete industry. SCC is having excellent deformability and segregation resistance. It helps for faster construction, easier placement of concrete, improved durability and results in slender sections. Several research works have been carried out using the SCC, but very little effort has been taken to study the effect of size of aggregate on SCC. Present research is aimed at investing the effect of size of aggregate on the SCC. Aggregate size varying from 8mm, 12mm, 16mm and 20mm are used to study the strength parameters of concrete. An extensive experimental program was planned to achieve the objective of this research. Several tests on fresh and hardened concrete were carried out and results are discussed in length. Experimental results show that the size of aggregate influences the strength parameters of the SCC.
ANALYSIS OF CONCRETE SILO INCLUDING INTERACTION OF BENDING AND STRETCHING EFFECTS
KIRANBEN PATEL
There are many interesting aspects of the use of silos in engineering, but one alone stands out as being of paramount importance: the structural and construction aspect. The theory of structures tends to deal with a class of idealized mathematical models, stripped of many of the features that make them recognizable as useful object in engineering. Thus a beam is often idealized as a line endowed with certain mechanical properties, irrespective of whether it is a large bridge, an aircraft wing, or a flat spring inside a machine. In a similar way, the theory of silo structures deals, for example, with the "cylindrical silo" as an idealized entity. It is a cylindrical surface endowed with certain mechanical properties. In the paper analysis is done on a silo model for variation in thickness parameter using Structural Analysis and Design Software (STAAD). The treatment is the same whether the actual structure under study is a gas-transmission pipeline, a grain storage silo, or a steam boiler. Before entering this realm of geometry, in which silos are classified by their geometry (cylindrical, spherical, etc.) rather than their function, it is desirable to give a glimpse of the wide range of applications of silo structures in engineering practice. Indeed, a list of familiar examples will be useful in enabling us to pick up some structural features in a qualitative way to provide an introduction to the theory.
PROF. SMITHA YADAV, AMIT PRASAD, SWANAND PURANDARE AND ABHAY O. TIWARI
The high competition has forced contractors to bid projects with minimum profits to stay in business. A contractor that submits, either accidentally or deliberately, an unrealistically low bid price increases the possibility of getting a construction contract. However this leads to disputes, increased costs and schedule delays. In this paper bidding guidelines as applicable to Indian scenario is suggested. The guidelines are based on a study of various models developed in other nations and the construction scenario in India. The guideline lays procedures for both established and even new contractors to make more intelligent pricing decisions.
Research & Publications Department 