2. Thesis and Dissertations
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Item Participatory Geomatics in Process based watershed development(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) P. G, Diwakar; Mayya, S. G.Watershed, being a hydrological unit, has its importance as a physical, biological and socio-economic entity for planning and management of natural resources. Optimal use of land and water resources in a sustainable manner results in long-term benefits to the society. Developmental activities in rural areas for resource conservation are recognized as one of the major challenges and also a complex problem to deal with. Watershed development has been in vogue for a long time and several developmental programmes have been implemented over time, but there is a need to review the conventional methods. Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System technologies are well established in these areas. Further, it is noted that community participation in the developmental process, along with monitoring and evaluation, plays a key role. Considering that about 70% of Indians live in rural areas and large proportion of these areas depend on rain fed agriculture, spread over different agro-climatic zones, it is found pertinent to explore participatory methods for natural resources management. Not much work is done on process based participatory watershed development with geomatics technology interventions. The present research focus is on developing such a model with appropriate integration of modern tools and technologies. The conventional model is analysed and an improved process based model is suggested. The proposed model is suitably improved with community role at every stage of development with an optimal blend of conventional and contemporary techniques. Participatory geomatics and information technology solutions, through innovative means, are considered for watershed development including monitoring and evalution. The proposed techniques are successfully tested through Karnataka Watershed Development programme, Karnataka State, India and the results are discussed. The outcome indicates many positive developments, that is, effective use of modern technology in planning and implementation which has resulted in improved agriculture productvity, reduced runoof, increased infiltration, self employment, improved livestock and milk yield, better socio-economic conditions and livelihood options. It is concluded that innovative means of implementing participatory watershed development have given rich dividends for natural resources development.Item Study of Geomorphology and Dynamics of Shoreline Associated with Mulky-Pavanje Rivermouth, Dakshina Kannada Coast, Karnataka, India(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) Nagaraj, Gumageri; Dwarakish, G. S.The current thesis considered Mulky-Pavanje rivermouth and associated shoreline of about 12km length, lies between 13000'00''-13006'00'' North Latitude and 74044'00''- 74050'00'' East Longitude of Dakshina Kannda coast, Karnataka, India for short-term (<10 years), medium-term (10–60 years) and long-term (>60 years) shoreline changes. Beach survey, beach width, wave climate (height, period and direction) and wind parameters (speed and direction) and sediment sampling are gathered from nine locations (BS 1 – BS 9) to represent total 12 km shoreline, during the period from September 2009 to December 2011 for short-term change analysis. Short-term change analysis indicated that net accretion on the beaches towards the south of the rivermouth (BS 1–BS 5), whereas the north of the rivermouth experienced net erosion (BS 6–BS 9). For medium-term shoreline change analysis, rainfall and river discharges are obtained from Indian Meteorological Department for the periods 1985- 2011 and 1985-1998 respectively. The monsoonal storm directly induces rivermouth morphology to vary (BS 5–BS 6), adjacent beaches to suffer from erosion (BS1–BS 4 and BS 7–BS 9) and also leads drastic changes in wave climate and freshwater flow. During monsoon and post-monsoon periods, the rivers Mulky (North) and Pavanje (South) overflow, discharge sizeable quantities of sediments into the sea, whereas during the pre-monsoon periods, seawater enters into the rivermouth area leads sediment deposition and distribution on either side of the rivermouth. However, the discharge of the Mulky river is approximately two times more than that of Pavanje river. Because of the more flow in the Mulky river, which runs across the northern part of the rivermouth, the shoreline in the vicinity of rivermouth is predominantly shifting towards south. Additionally long-term shoreline change analyses are made through multidated satellite imageries and topomaps for the period 1912–2009. The long-term shoreline change analyses depicts that northern spit and rivermouth are shifting towards south during the period 1912–2009 and also observed that fluctuation of accretion and erosion pattern on southern side of the shoreline is highly significant as compared with northern side. The Mulky-Pavanje rivermouth being highly complex and dynamic, but it provides wide scope for developmental activities around it. Therefore Land use/Land cover changes are attempted by considering recentix decade, i.e 1998–2009 with the help of topographical map and remote sensing data. Land use/Land cover change analysis indicated that, because of development of urbanization and industrialization around the rivermouth, the built-up area has been drastically increased, while the other coastal related geological features such as beach vegetation, mangroves and river sand are drastically reduced during the period 1998– 2009. In addition, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique is used to model the very important parameters of the coastal engineering such as wave height and littoral drift, which cause coastal erosion in the study area. The developed NARX and FFBP models are evaluated using error statistics. In both cases the NARX model performed better than FFBP and proved that wave height and littoral drift are the direct responsible factors to cause erosion in the Mulky-Pavanje rivermouth and associated shoreline.Item Groundwater Level Forecasting using Radial Basis Function and Generalized Regression Neural Networks(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) D, Sreenivasulu; Deka, Paresh ChandraForecasting of groundwater levels is very much useful for efficient planning in integrated management of groundwater and surface water resources in a basin. Accurate and reliable groundwater level forecasting models can help ensuring the sustainable use of a watershed’s aquifer for both urban and rural water supply. The present work investigates the potential of two Neural networks, such as Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNN) and Generalized Regression Neural Networks (GRNN) in comparison to regular ANN models like Feed Forward Back Propagation (FFBP) and Non-Linear Regression Model (NARX) for modeling in Ground water level (GWL) forecasting in a coastal aquifer at western Ghats of India. Total 24 wells (both shallow and deep) located within the study area (microwatershed of Pavanje river basin) were selected covering around 40sqkm. Here, two different dataset such as weekly Time series GWL and Meteorological variables those recorded during the study period (2004-2011) were used in the analysis. Various performance indices such as Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Coefficient of Correlation (CC) and Coefficient of Efficiency (CE) were used as evaluation criteria to assess the performance of the developed models. At the first stage, the potential and applicability of RBF for forecasting groundwater level are investigated. Weekly time series groundwater level data upto four lagged data has been used as various input scenario where predicted output are one and two week leadtime GWL. The analysis has been carried out separately for three representative open wells. For all the three well stations, higher accuracy and consistent forecasting performance for RBF network model was obtained compared to FFBP network model. After confirming the suitability of RBF in GWL forecasting and with better accuracy over FFBP, the work has been extended further to consolidate the applicability of RBF in multistep leadtime forecasting upto six week ahead. In this study, six representative wells are covered for development of RBF models for six different input combinations using lagged time series data. Outputs are the predicted GWL upto six week. RBF models are developed for every well station and results are compared with Non linear regression model (NARX). It has been observed that for allGroundwater level Forecasting using Radial Basis Function and Generalized Regression Neural Networks, Ph.D Thesis, 2012, NITK, Surathkal, India viii the six well station, the higher and consistent forecasting performance by RBF network model in multi step week lead which consolidates the forecasting capability of RBF. The NARX model result shows poor performance. In the third stage, to examine the potential and applicability of GRNN in GWL forecasting, various GRNN models has been developed by considering the advantage of S-summation and D-summation layers for different input combinations using time series data. Weekly time series groundwater level data upto four lagged data has been used as inputs where predicted outputs are one week leadtime GWL. The analysis has been carried out separately for three representative open wells. GRNN models were developed for every well and best model results were compared with best RBF and FFBP with LM training algorithm models. The RBF and GRNN models are almost performed similarly in GWL forecasting with higher accuracy in all the representative well station. The poor performance of FFBP-LM model is also satisfactory but found inferior than both GRNN and RBF. After confirming the potential and applicability of GRNN and RBF in time series GWL forecasting with similar capability, the robustness, adaptability and flexibility characteristics of these two techniques are further investigated for suitability with cause and effect relationship. Here various meteorological parameters are used as causable variable and the GWL is used as output effect .Only GRNN models are developed in the present study as RBF was found with similar predicting performance in previous studies. Five various input combinations are used to obtain best results as one step leadtime output for three representative wells. In this case also, GRNN model is predicting groundwater level with higher accuracy and with satisfactory results. The GRNN model performance is compared to general ANN (FFBP) model and found outperforming FFBP performance. The result of the study indicates the potential and suitability of RBFNN and GRNN modeling in GWL forecasting for multistep leadtime data. The performance of RBFNN and GRNN were found almost equally good. Although accuracy of forecasted GWL generally decreases with the increase of leadtime, the GWL forecast were obtained within acceptable accuracy for both the models.Item Impact of Micro Health Insurancecase Study of Sampoorna Suraksha Programme in Karnataka(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) Savitha; Kiran, K. B.Micro health insurance (MHI) is a pivotal and innovative health financing mechanism that mitigates iatrogenic poverty thereby providing financial protection to the informal sector. However, the limited evidence from India does raise research questions regarding the effectiveness of MHI schemes in achieving these objectives. Thus, this thesis focuses on this area of research gap in MHI to evaluate its impact on (i) financial protection, (ii) social inclusion, (iii) resource mobilization, and (iv) the role of scheme characteristics on its performance. Sampoorna Suraksha Programme (SSP), a MHI scheme in Karnataka was chosen to study the research gap on impact and performance using a descriptive survey research methodology using self-administered validated questionnaire. Multi-stage, clustering design with random selection procedures was adopted to collect quantitative data from 416 insured, 366 newly insured and 364 uninsured self-help group (SHG) households of Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Gadag districts in Karnataka State. Qualitative data was collected using in-depth interviews with network hospital staff, field staff and administrators of SSP, and focus group discussion with the members of SHG households. The results on financial protection indicated a lower out of pocket expenditure and catastrophic health expenditure, higher utilisation of inpatient services, desired health-seeking behaviour and decreased borrowing for the insured households. There was no impact on access to care and social inclusion in enrolment. On the contrary, the inadequate resource mobilization evident from the study resulting from high claims ratio and lower premium collection would pose a threat to the long-term financial sustainability of SSP. The study indentified certain design features that influenced the outcome of SSP. The findings of this study provide adequate evidence to substantiate the effectiveness and positive impact of SSP on financial protection and MHI certainly is advocated as a financing alternative to mitigate iatrogenic poverty.Item Brand Equity for Leveraging Business Performance of Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) Mohan, Bijuna C; Sequeira, A.H.Globalization and liberalization of markets, has increased the intensity of competition faced by different organizations and hence the pressure to perform better is high. In order to fight competition companies spend huge amount on brand building activities. There is a need to study the implication of these on the performance of the business. Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry (FMCG) is one of the fastest growing industries in India. This research focuses to identify the interrelations between the customer-based brand equity and business performance for the FMCG industry in India. Brand equity was approached from the perspective of the consumer. The literature review provides little research evidence where brand equity can be leveraged for business performance in the FMCG industry. There is immense need to focus on the concept of brand equity which can be leveraged for business performance The study merges both descriptive and exploratory approaches in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem. The study used structured and clearly stated hypotheses and involved testing the objective theories by examining the relationship among the variables. These variables were measured using questionnaires. Data on both financial performance and operational performance was collected from published external secondary sources and computerized database. Samples were chosen from the five States of Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka and Punjab based on probability and non-probability sampling. Descriptive and inferential statistics was applied to analyze the data. The four components of brand equity, appears to play a more dominant role in determining a brand’s equity for FMCG products. Brand association emerged as thelargest contributor to brand equity. The results convey that measures of consumerbased brand equity are accurate reflections of business performance in the marketplace, particularly with the operational performance. Brand loyalty had the highest influence on operational performance. The findings of this study will not only enrich the field of research pertaining to the use of brand equity for leveraging business performance, but also helps brand managers of FMCG companies to manage their brands effectively and efficiently.Item Assessment of Relationship Between Organizational Culture, Identification and Commitment in the Context of Mergers(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) Uchil, Rashmi; Sequeira, A.H.Culture is the glue that binds people across geographical boundaries. Culture provides the unique identification to a group and provides its members a sense making ability to view the world and perceive it in a way distinct from other groups. This dimension of culture permeates into the professional realm and creates an organizational culture that is specific to each organization. All employees of an organization internalize the core values and propagate the organizational culture in their ordinary activities. Organizational culture assumes importance when an organization envisages a change. One such change initiative is through the inorganic route of a merger. A merger involves two almost similar and equal organizations coming together and forming a new entity in order to realize stated gains. But studies have shown contrary results. Most mergers fail to deliver as promised. Studies have also revealed that organizations do not consider the impact of organizational culture and its associated variables as part of their due diligence efforts before the merger. This provided the impetus for the current study. The researcher has made an attempt to assess the relationship between organizational culture, identification and commitment on mergers with specific reference to the Indian manufacturing and service sectors. The researcher framed research questions, research objectives and research hypotheses to serve as a guide for instituting the study. A review of related literature provided the foundation to base the study and helped in the development of a literature map and the conceptual framework. The research design envisaged for the study was a mixed method combining both the qualitative and the quantitative approaches to collect in depth data. The initial research was exploratory with the aid of the grounded theory methodology to crystallize the variables for the study. The identified variables were then tested on the sample identified through the administration of a questionnaire and an interview schedule. A mixed sampling method was adopted for the study in line with the mixed research approach. The sampling method was a combination of the probability and non-probability methods and it was used in an iterative method again in line with the grounded theory methodology. The sampling frame was ascertained from the databases of the CMIE and the Bangalore Stock Exchange. A total number of thirty nine organizations that had taken the merger route formed the basis fordrawing the sample. Each of these organizations was represented by six respondents from the three managerial levels, thus making up a total of two hundred and twenty eight respondents. The data collected was subject to statistical analysis such as the Chi-square test, McNemar Test, Mann Whitney z test, Regression Analysis, Correlation Analysis and Factor Analysis. The results of these analysis and the hypotheses testing opened a new dimension in the study of mergers in the context of Indian manufacturing and service sectors. The results revealed that organizational culture, identification and commitment have a significant relationship with one another and that they do not exist in isolation. The Indian manufacturing sector was more inclined towards accepting and internalizing the changes in organizational culture than the service sector. Both the sectors revealed that organizational identification changed with the merger and did not contribute significantly towards the generation of organizational commitment. The study also looked into the impact of leadership, attrition and gender equality on identification and commitment. The researcher has been able to draw a few important conclusions that may contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field of organizational identification and commitment. The study has been successful in reiterating the importance of people in organizations and recommends that organizations consider their employees not just as resources and assets but as partners in their business venture.Item Doping of Vacuum Deposited Zinc Oxide Thin Films(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) Palimar, Sowmya; Shivakumar, G. K.; Bangera, Kasturi. V.The main objective of present work is to study the doping of vacuum evaporated zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films. Initially, optimum conditions required to obtain good quality of undoped ZnO thin films is determined by depositing films using two evaporation sources (boats) namely molybdenum and tungsten and annealing them under different conditions. Compositional analysis of films showed incorporation of boat atoms in to ZnO thin films prepared using molybdenum as well as tungsten boat. A considerable reduction in atomic percentage incorporated boat atoms on annealing was observed in both cases. ZnO thin films obtained under optimum conditions were found to be amorphous in nature with good combination of visible region transmittance of up to 90% and room temperature conductivity of 92 Ω−1cm−1. XPS analysis has shown that the film is approximately stoichiometric with slight oxygen deficiency. From the measurements of activation energy it is observed that ZnO thin film is having two donor levels below the conduction band. Further, ZnO films are doped with third group dopants to improve their n-type conductivity. Investigation has been carried out to know the optimum percentage of dopnat to be added to retain the transmittance of the film. Role of third group elements as n-type dopants in the form of pure metals and metal oxides is studied by doping the film with indium and indium oxide separately. It is observed that contribution of indium oxide dopants is more than indium dopants in improving the conductivity of films. ZnO films were then doped with other two third group oxides, namely gallium oxide and aluminum oxide. From structural, optical and electrical properties of these oxide doped ZnO films it is found that all films have smooth surface with visible region transparency of above 90% and significantly high room temperature conductivity of the order of 103 Ω−1cm−1, which are well suited for the application of transparent electrodes.Item Studies on Growth, Optical And Electrical Properties of Doped and Undoped Zinc Oxide Thin Films(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) K. K., Nagaraja; Nagaraja, H. S.In recent years zinc oxide (ZnO) has attracted the researchers because of its excellent optical and electrical properties. The primary aim of this work is to deposit undoped and doped ZnO thin films by sputtering techniques and to study the structural, optical and electrical properties. The thin films were deposited on glass and quartz substrates at room temperature using DC and RF magnetron sputtering. The studies on the effects of annealing on the structural and third-order nonlinear optical properties of ZnO thin films deposited on quartz substrates has been carried out under cw He-Ne laser irradiation at 633 nm wavelength using z-scan technique. The enhanced nonlinear response of the films was observed with the increase in the annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns show the appearance of crystalline phases of SiO2 at higher annealing temperatures. The appearance of extraneous phase was confirmed by atomic force microscope (AFM) images and optical transmittance spectra. Multiple diffraction rings due to the refractive index change and thermal lensing were observed when the samples were exposed to laser beam. Also, the films exhibited strong optical limiting properties. Transparent conducting aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were deposited on glass substrates. Variation of stress values and the lattice parameters confirms the presence of Al3+ ions in the ZnO matrix. Electrical resistivity of the deposited films was found to be as low as 0:5×10−4Ω-cm. XRD patterns of the ZnO/Al/ZnO multilayers show only reflections corresponding to Wurtzite ZnO. The sheet resistance of the multilayers found to decrease with the increase in the Al interlayer thickness. But, the average transmittance in the visible region decreases. The XRD results of manganese doped ZnO (MZO) films deposited using compound targets show the decrease of lattice parameters a and c after doping of Mn into ZnO. The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility χ(3) is found to be of the order of 10−3 esu for MZO films. Keywords: ZnO; magnetron sputtering; XRD; TCO; AFM; CW laser; NLOItem Effect of Pulsed Laser Deposited Ceramic Coatings on Microhardness and Corrosion Behavior of Titanium, Ti6al4v and Inconel(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) C, Sujaya; Shashikala, H.D.Coatings are used to modify and increase the functionality of a bulk surface or substrate without modifying the bulk properties of the material. The present work aims at obtaining uniform adhesive coatings of alumina and silicon carbide on different substrates viz., titanium, Ti6Al4V and inconel by pulsed laser deposition technique using Q-switched Nd: YAG laser at low temperature. Processing parameters such as laser fluence, substrate target distance, substrate temperature and target density during deposition were standardized to get adhesive films. Coated films were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, spectrophotometer, optical microscope, nanoindentation, surface roughness measurements using 3D optical profilometer, adhesion test. Microhardness and corrosion studies were carried on substrates and after coating. Composite microhardness of ceramic coated substrates was measured using Knoop indenter and its film hardness was separated from composite hardness using a mathematical model based on modified area-law of mixture. Then by including indentation size effect the film hardness was compared with values obtained using nanoindentation method. Composite hardness as well as film hardness of the ceramic coating was found to be higher compared to the substrates. Corrosion behavior of substrates after ceramic coating was studied using 3.5% NaCl solution by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The Nyquist and the Bode plots obtained from the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data are fitted by appropriate equivalent circuits. The pore resistance, the charge transfer resistance, the coating capacitance and the double layer capacitance of the coatings were obtained from the equivalent circuit. Alumina coated substrates showed more corrosion resistance than silicon carbide coated substrates. After the corrosion testing, the surface topography of the uncoated and the coated system were examined under scanning electron microscopy. Experimental results confirmed the possibility of using Nd: YAG laser for ceramic film deposition which improves the microhardness and corrosion resistance of the substrate considerablyItem Experimental Investigation on Estimation and Prediction of Sound in Percussive Drilling(National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 2013) Kivade, Sangshetty; Murthy, Ch. S. N.; Vardhan, HarshaThis research work was taken up with the objectives of developing general prediction models for the determination of uni-axial compressive strength (UCS), abrasivity, tensile strength (TS) and Schmidt rebound number (SRN) for sedimentary and igneous rocks using penetration rate and sound level produced during percussive drilling. To carry out this investigation fabricated pneumatic drill set-up on the laboratory scale was used. In the present work shale, dolomite, sand stone, lime stone and hematite were the sedimentary rocks, whereas dolerite, soda granite, black granite, basalt and gabbros were the igneous rocks used in this investigation. For all the above mentioned rocks their mechanical properties were determined as per the suggested methods of International Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM). The laboratory investigation on all the sedimentary and igneous rocks using the drill set-up was carried out to find the penetration rate (mm/s) and sound level (dB (A)) produced by varying air pressure from 392 to 588 kPa, thrust from 100 to 1000 N and with varying drill bits and types (integral chisel drill bit: 30, 34 and 40 mm diameter, threaded (R22) cross drill bit: 35 and 38 mm diameter). The data generated in the laboratory investigation was utilized for the development of regression models for predicting rock properties like, UCS, abrasivity, TS, and SRN using air pressure, thrust, bit diameter, penetration rate and sound level. Further, regression models were also developed for predicting penetration rate and sound level using air pressure, thrust, bit diameter and rock properties as input parameters. In a similar way, i.e. utilizing the same input parameters for determining the rock properties and predicting the sound level and penetration rate, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models were developed. A comparison was made between the results obtained using various regression models developed and the ANN models. Results of this investigation indicate that ANN models are superior over regression models.