Prof. M R Wakchaure of Civil Department own the “Best Paper Award” in International Conference at NIT, Jalandhar (Punjab)

In UKIERI Concrete Congress’s International Conference titled “Concrete Research Driving Profit and Sustainability”, held at Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jalandhar (Punjab) during 2nd November, 2015 to 5th November, 2015, Prof M R Wakchaure of Civil Department of Amrutvahini College of Engineering, Sangamner, secured “Best paper Award”  for the paper “Bamboo Reinforced Concrete For Sustainable Development”.

The conference was organized by United Kingdom India Engineering Research Institute (UKIERI) and NIT, Jalandhar with the theme of "Concrete for Sustainable Development". Apart from Indian scientists, researchers of nineteen countries presented their deliberations in the conference. Per capita consumption of concrete is becoming an indicator of growth for the developing nations, which directly and indirectly leads to the depletion of natural reserves, environment deterioration, climate change, terrorism et al. It is becoming one of the focused issues for national and international politics. In the conference, the concrete for future, ingredients, alternative reinforcing materials, pollution control, high grade concrete and recent innovation in the field of concrete were discussed.

The concept of it is as follows: Concrete is strong enough to carry compression but is very weak in carrying tension, so in normal construction the concrete is reinforced with steel bars. Getting inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “Mother Earth can fulfill everyone’s need but cannot fulfill anyone’s greed”,  in his paper Prof. Wakchaure used bamboo splints to carry tension and presented detailed expressions and tables required for analysis and design for the same. He also presented report on construction of G+1 bamboo reinforced concrete mentioning the merits and demerits of bamboo as reinforcement for cement concrete.

For the presentation Italian researcher Enzo Siviero chaired the session and Peter C Hewlett of United Kingdom judged the paper. Dr. Sunil Kute of K K Wagh College of Engineering and Research, Nashik, guided and Prof. Pravin Mehetre assisted Prof. Wakchaure for this research. All the faculty members, Dr. G J Vikhepatil, Prof. V B Dhumal, Shri. D B Patil, Dr. Sudhir Tambe(MLC) and Shri. Balasheb Thorat(Ex. Minister and MLA) congratulated Prof. Wakchaure for this achievement.