Good day, Anjaly J Pillai, PhD. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Yes, good day to you as well. Thank you for this.

For selecting me for this interview, so I am Anjali Jay Pillai. I have completed my PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.

22 and after that I was working as an assistant professor in Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore. Presently, I am working as a postdoctoral researcher and Institute of Fluid Flow Machinery which is under the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland. So my research area is in structural engineering and my research focus during the PhD was in bridge engineering and. Especially fatigue. Life estimation of bridges.

But during my post doctoral now with the post doctoral research, I am more focused on structural health monitoring of composites and.

Umm, other structures. So currently with my expertise in SHM, uh, which is structural health monitoring, bridge engineering, fatigue and fracture mechanics, uh, I hope that I can contribute to the research in vit with the given, uh, lab and uh, the structural engineering faculty there. Apart from that, uh, because of my teaching experience at Amrita School of Engineering particularly.

In the structural engineering subjects like solid mechanics.

Structural analysis one and two and teaching postgraduate students subjects like finite element method, bridge engineering has given me enough experience.

To teach and that would help me when I join in vit.

Thank you for sharing your background and relevant experiences, Professor. Let me start by verifying your competencies across some specific areas tied closely to the Earthquake Engineering/Structural Engineering Professor role. Let’s begin with your technical expertise. Could you elaborate on your experience with using structural health monitoring methods for detecting fatigue damage in bridges? Specifically, what techniques or methodologies have you implemented in your research or professional work?

Uh, OK, uh, so.

MMM, uh, for this SHM uh, uh, using dam fatigue damage detection in bridges, uh, so during my PhD, umm.

I could not test an actual bridge model, So what was done was.

Random loading was considered and the vehicular loading was simulated so that we could consider a random arrival time which happens in the real time scenario and based on the simulated vehicular loading.

We had created or I can say.

A numerical approach was developed which is called as the orthogonal polynomial expansion method with which I could find out the fatigue, I mean the expected displacements or the stresses in the bridge which was used to find out the fatigue life of the bridge. And this was done both numerically and using the finite elements software. Now coming to. The present work experience over here.

Understood.

I have not used SHM in bridges as such. I'm in real time testing of bridges. But right now we I have with a collaboration with Doctor Shindu Siddhar from the University of Huddersfield, we had worked on the damage detection of wind turbine blades in which the cracks were modeled considering fatigue cracks. So.

The experimental part was done at the University of Huddersfield, UK, and the numerical part in Abacus was done by me.

So I can use that expertise to model the bridge as well as test the bridge in a real time. Over here I am right now working on SHM of aluminium rods with a crack and then fatigue life monitoring of a beam with crack. So these experiences will help me.

To test an actual bridge and use the methodology that is the finite element, the skills which I have gained here using the finite element software.

To validate the experimental or the real time data which is available.

Thank you for that detailed explanation. It’s clear that you have a strong background in numerical methods and their application in structural health monitoring. Let’s pivot to earthquake engineering. Could you explain how your expertise aligns with designing structures or evaluating their performance under seismic conditions? Specifically, have you conducted any work or research in this area?

MMM, so.

My domain is not with reference to earthquake engineering, but during my.

When I was at Amrita School of Engineering as an assistant professor, I was guiding a student who was working on.

The seismic assessment of buildings with various incident angles, so.

So right now.

So the initial study was conducted when I was there and.

I can clearly say that I am not an expert in earthquake engineering, but uh, given the.

Technical knowledge which I have gained during my masters, bachelors and PhD. I am sure that I can teach the subjects related to that and of course.

The knowledge which I have will help me to do a research in that area as well.

Understood, Professor. While earthquake engineering may not be your primary domain, your willingness to leverage your foundational knowledge and teaching experience to guide students in this area is noted. Let us now transition to your teaching methodology. How do you approach teaching complex structural engineering concepts, such as finite element analysis, to ensure that students not only grasp the theories but are also able to apply them effectively in practical scenarios?

This was the thing which I had done in Amrita School of Engineering when I was teaching the postgraduate students.

Uh, OK, so, umm.

So, uh.

A part of the theory which is the fundamental knowledge of FEM was taught to them.

And.

Simultaneously.

Is being used to understand the modeling and understand the analysis done in Abacus because I believe that each analysis in Abacus is different. So there are a lot of, uh, complexities involved. And those complexities can be understood only when the theoretical knowledge is, uh, well understood.

Uh, the the modeling was shown in Abacus to relate how the theory.

So it was a, I mean a PowerPoint presentation kind of teaching along with.

Showing modeling techniques and making them understand Abacus which is one of the FEA softwares used and how we are implementing FEA knowledge in understanding the modeling and analysis in Abacus as well as.

Chalk teaching was also done when a lot of theoretical derivations were required so that they could understood well.

Thank you for laying out your teaching approach, Professor. It’s valuable to see how you bridge theoretical foundations with hands-on tools like Abaqus, alongside traditional teaching techniques. Now, let’s examine your ability to guide student research. Could you share an example of a postgraduate project you supervised, focusing on how you provided direction and ensured its success?

So.

In, uh, when I was at Amrita School of Engineering, I had guided, uh, postgraduate student who was working on umm, clam based connections. And we wanted to check the, uh, we, we had developed a client based connection, which is not uh, the normal clamp based connection. It is called as a big clam connection, uh, which can be used, umm, so that. Mean uh, it is primarily used in cases where I want to reuse the clamp and I want to.

Please

Keep it somewhere else or in such a way that the original structure is not getting affected because of this. So, so in that case, my knowledge in Abacus helped her to I mean to model the clams, do the experimental. We also try to do an experimental static experimental study.

I mean experimental studies objected to static loading and.

Uh, that way she could, uh.

She could complete her thesis well and right now, uh.

A part of her work was uh, then uh, further uh, experimental studies were carried out with part of her work through another student and combining both the works. Uh, right now we have given one paper for publication which is currently under review.

Thank you, Professor, for sharing this example. It demonstrates how you effectively integrate theoretical insights, software simulations, and experimental studies while guiding students through complex projects—ultimately bringing their work to publication. Shifting to research publications, could you discuss a specific peer-reviewed paper you have authored or co-authored, highlighting its contribution to the field of structural engineering?

So the first paper which I would describe is from, uh, my PhD thesis. So it was published in the Journal of Bridge Engineering, ASC and.

Also in structure and infrastructure engineering which is under tailored and Francis so as I mentioned earlier.

Because bridges are subjected to random movement of loads, so the random vehicular loading was simulated and uh, because of the uncertainty in uh, the equations of motion which was coming it. This was uh solved using UH technique called as orthogonal polynomial expansion and. Then from the, uh, expected deflection, the standard deviation of the deflection.

Or the stresses, The fatigue life of the bridge was uh, calculated. So this was tested on a simply supported uh.

Simply supported bridge.

And this fundamental part of the work consisting of the theoretical derivations and its implementation in a simply supported bridge was published in Taylor and Francis, uh, structure, I mean Taylor and Francis journal. And the other part of the work is, uh, implementing this in CSI grid software.

Uh, so because there I I do not have the option to bring in random, uh, loads.

There were certain techniques to simulate such loads and that part of the work is published in Journal of Bridge Engineering AC. So the So that was implemented on a plate girder bridge and then recently.

With the collaboration with Doctor Shishendo Sigdar and his team from the University of Huddersfield, UK, we have a publication in composite Structures Elsevier, which is on.

Uh, health monitoring of wind turbine blades, uh, using, uh.

The artificial intelligence and other neural networking so.

The experimental part and the machine learning part was done by their team. However, there were a lot of numerical simulations to be done on the wind turbine blade, which included a longitudinal debont, a transverse debont and erosion damage on the blade. And that was numerically, I mean the blade was modeled and those analysis were done in Abacus. By me, so that is currently published with the composite structures.

So LC version.

Thank you for detailing these contributions, Professor. Your research clearly demonstrates a strong application of theoretical methods, advanced numerical simulations, and collaborative efforts leading to impactful publications in reputed journals. This is an excellent reflection of your depth in the field. Moving on to consultancy and industry work—do you have any experience with industry projects, consultancy engagements, or collaborations outside academia? If so, could you describe a significant one and its impact?

OK, so.

During my.

Work at Amrita School of Engineering, we had a chance to do the proof checking of 10m span and a 20m span bridge which was quite insightful for me because.

First of all, we had a site visit there. Then we as a team checked the design as per the.

Codal standards of India. So the main codal standards referred where IRC 112, IRC 6.

And for the structural components for bearing also the respective codal standards were referred as well As for the foundation.

So one thing which which brought a.

I mean because this was out of the academia.

This experience.

Brought a clear understanding of how.

The knowledge is being put to practice and the second thing was that while I was teaching the course Bridge Engineering to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, I used this experience and I was able to show them some of the detailed drawings and how to interpret them and how to use the theory which we are learning.

To understand the analysis and the design which was used.

Apart from that, there were also some 5 to 6 bridge load testings which was done.

And that also gave a clear insight on how how we have to do things practically.

Thank you, Professor. Your consultancy experience highlights a valuable alignment between academic theory and practical application. The hands-on involvement with proof-checking and load testing bridges, coupled with integrating these insights into your teaching, underscores your ability to blend academic rigor with real-world engineering practice effectively. To wrap up the technical section, let us discuss how you approach examining students under your supervision. What is your methodology for assessing student performance, and how do you ensure fair evaluation?

So, uh, if umm.

So if it is a, yeah, if it is a structural analysis.

Uh, one and two.

Subject then the based on the units. So the initial units would be the fundamental I mean would be. So I will be focusing on developing their fundamental concepts in the initial units and therefore.

I work or I give assessments like assignments or quizzes in the initial uh, maybe till the half uh.

Till the half of the semester and the remaining semester where the other units are covered, for which the.

Like the units covered before were considered where?

Are fundamental. Then for those cases I I would give projects such as.

Modeling or structure in ETAPS or CSI bridge or the available software. Mostly it will be ETAPS or CSI bridge and then using the knowledge in the structural analysis.

To clearly verify the results which they have got from the numerical modeling.

So that would be 1 case. The same thing I follow in finite element method as well, but when it comes to subjects like solid mechanics.

I would give some of the assessments, uh, surprise quizzes and then towards the end I would give them a very, umm, a very basic, uh, modeling assignment which would help them understand how, uh, the.

How we can interpret the results using what is taught in solid mechanics?

Principles or umm.

For a sub, yeah, OK.

For subjects like bridge engineering.

I would give them.

I mean, I would give them a project at the beginning of the semester which would include the design and detailing as well as creating a detailed project report so that they have the entire semester and they have to present it. So that would be my evaluation.

Thank you for elaborating, Professor. Your multi-faceted approach to assessments—ranging from foundational quizzes to software-based projects and detailed design reports—demonstrates a thoughtful strategy to ensure students grasp both theoretical and practical aspects of structural engineering. This concludes our technical verification section. Let us move forward.

Professor Pillai, to get us started, could you share a fundamental concept or introductory topic in structural or earthquake engineering that you particularly enjoy teaching to your students and why?

Uh, so I.

So I do like teaching, uh, influence line method in structural analysis because, uh, that gives you an idea of, you know how.

The uh.

Take your time, Professor.

Yeah, yeah. Thank you. How the moving loads?

Or with.

With the movement of loads how the structure behaves so because when we develop.

The.

Shear force for an influence line diagram or the bending moment. Then we use the theories which were taught earlier to develop these shear force diagrams. So that is one part I enjoy a lot teaching because that I feel that the students.

Are able to understand it well.

And yeah, yeah, that's all for now, yeah.

Professor Pillai, I’d like to delve into your research experience. Your work on "Health Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blades" seems quite intriguing. Could you elaborate on this project and its objectives? Specifically, how did you incorporate acoustic wave patterns into the health monitoring process?

So as I said, uh.

Previously this work was in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield, UK, so they had done the testing using piezoelectric transducers, which was around uh.

I mean, it was a disk of eight MMM dia and then.

So the.

Actually, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the actuator was placed.

Actuator was placed at the tip of the blade and at the, at a distance of 150 MMM from the actuator. Uh, they had uh, sensed the blade damage or others. I mean, they had umm, uh, I mean the signals from the healthy blade or the damaged blades were recorded. So the same thing was done.

Uh, new, uh, I mean, uh, done using finite element software Abacus and apart from this.

I

The various damage.

Sizes were incorporated.

And based on the numerical data.

I mean the, uh, results from the FEA and results from the experiment.

Using machine learning and deep learning, a damage detection UH model was developed which would give UH the confidence intervals for a healthy blade and damaged blades.

I see, that sounds like a comprehensive approach. Could you expand on how you ensured the accuracy and validation of this damage detection model, particularly when combining experimental results with FEM simulations? How did machine learning enhance the reliability of this process?

So, uh, as I said before, uh, machine learning is not my domain, but from, uh, what I understood, uh, working with the team over there is that, uh.

Kind of a transfer metrics was developed which would give the true and the false behavior based on the the methods which they had developed and that would give the confidence intervals for the damage detection.

Uh, both. In both experiments and the numerical, the same input was given.

And.

Uh, which was a five cycle, uh, pulse handing window.

Thank you, Professor. Last follow-up question here: How would you adapt these research findings into your teaching to help students grasp both the practical and theoretical aspects of structural health monitoring?

So, umm.

Take your time.

So, uh, I I would say that I would show them.

Experimental framework of how we detect damage on maybe a very simple sample, maybe another medium plate or a composite plate to make them understand how we.

How are the testing, how is the testing to be done? Uh, because over here I'm also doing experimental testing. So that would help me to make them understand how the testing is done and how it can be, uh.

On a broader picture can be done on a real time structure and apart from that once the experimental test is done, how can we validate using the numerical softwares that I can show with my expertise so.

Uh, I clearly believe that with the experimental test, they would be able to understand how the damage is getting detected by the changes in the, uh, signals which are generated. So there are some, uh, signal properties or the wave modes which change with damage and the healthy conditions. So I can clearly show them that and make them understand that there is a damage or if there is, there is, uh, if there is no damage.

Professor, could you outline your three-year research roadmap for advancing knowledge within the field of Earthquake or Structural Engineering, and how you anticipate your research might align with the responsibilities outlined in our job description?

So the three-year research plan would be umm.

The first one. The first one would be the fatigue life monitoring of bridges.

Or I can say, uh, I would develop a.

An experimental program or an experimental study wherein instead of considering bridges and equivalent beam.

Model.

Prototype model will be developed.

And using my, using the experimental skills which I am developing over here, I can very well guide some of the masters or the PhD or even the bachelor students to for the experimental part and teach them the numerical modeling, uh.

So that would be 1 and that will this small study will then.

Be used for health monitoring of bridges. The second thing would be to work in health monitoring of composites. So because I've already worked in wind turbine blade, but apart from that there are other composite structures which.

I I I presume to work with the collaboration over here and with the University of Huddersfield, UK.

As well as with.

Uh, some of my, uh, some of, uh, the faculties who had taught me in IIT Guwahati and the third one, uh, would be uh, the.

Assessment of bridges considering uh soil structure interaction. Although a lot of work has been done, a proper modeling technique and UMM.

Numerical assessment is required, so that would be the three-year plan.

Thank you, Professor. How do you plan to scale your research activities to establish a pipeline of high-quality publications while mentoring junior students effectively? Could you elaborate on your strategy for balancing these responsibilities?

Apart from I understand that the teaching and administrative responsibilities are there, but.

So I would.

Umm. So there would be, uh.