FORM

TH-1

National University of Sciences & Technology

MASTER’S THESIS WORK
Formulation of Guidance and Examination Committee

Name: Muhammad Haseeb Amjad Regn No.329942

Department: NICE Specialization: MS Structural Engineering

Credit Hours Completed: 24 GPA / CGPA: 3.56/4

Course Work Completed
Core /
Course
S. No Course Title Elective/ CH Grade
Code
Additional
1. CE-801 Advance Structural Mechanics Core 3 B+
2. CE-816 Advance Structural Materials Elective 3 A
3. CE-809 Structural dynamics Core 3 B+
4. CE-804 Pre-Stressed Concrete Structures Core 3 A
5. CE-805 Advance Concrete Design Core 3 B+
6. CE-815 Masonry Structures Elective 3 B+
7. CE-807 Steel structures Elective 3 B
8. ME-818 Advance Modelling and Simulation Elective 3 B+

Date 24-10-2022 Student’s Signature:

Thesis Committee Members:

Supervisors Name: Dr Ather Ali Signature:___________________

Members:
1. Name: Dr Fawad A. Najam
Department: NICE Signature:
2. Name: Dr Nilanjan Das Chakladar
Department: Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, India Signature:
3. Name: Dr Azam Khan
Department: NICE Signature:

Date

Signature of Head of
Department

APPROVAL

Distribution Dean / Principal

1. 1 x copy to Exam Branch, HQ NUST
2. 1 x copy to PGP Dte, HQ NUST
3. 1 x copy to Exam Branch,
Respective Institute Date:
 Annex ‘A’ Form TH-1

National University of Sciences &

Technology
MASTER’S THESIS WORK

1. Name: Ahmad Gul Zafar

2. Reg. No: 330677
2. Department/Discipline: MS Structural Engineering
3. Institute: NUST institute of Civil Engineering
4. Thesis Topic: “An empirical analysis of bridge construction
and damage trends on National Highways of Pakistan to
improve/systemize future SHM & repair efforts via bridge
management algorithm.”
5. Brief Description/Abstract:
Bridges serve as the links between roads which if rendered non-
functional, can lead to major disruption in the logistics of that
region in addition to the day to day travel of local inhabitants.
Moreover, bridges are one of the most valuable infrastructure
asset of a country. Available budget for rehabilitation and
maintenance is usually not enough for holding the system in a
certain condition level its whole life. In our country bridge
maintenance isn't as prioritized as their construction until there is
any structural failure. All developed countries have a central BMS
(Bridge Management System) for planning, managing and
scheduling repair efforts for these structures.
 Pakistan being a developing country in an effort to remedy the
situation, is initiating a Bridge Management System for inventory
record as well as condition assessment of Bridges & Culverts on all
National Highways of Pakistan.
This research shall analyze construction type, damages & their
trends based on different criterion to identify the current
condition of these assets and lead causes of deteriorations. This
will help us plan, prioritize future repair efforts as well as help
improve construction practices.

6. Level of Research Already Carried Out on the Proposed

Topic:
Vincenzo Gattulli et al did Article describes a bridge assessment
procedure based on visual inspection coded on prototype
software to be included in the developing BMS.
Maria Rashidi et al did a methodology for priority ranking of
bridges is proposed. Following a multi-criteria type of
analysis, a PI is computed for each bridge enabling decision
making.
Yoseok Jeong et al did Study compares inspection practices,
damage ranking criterion and maintenance prioritization system
of the 4 countries. It also concludes additional modules to
improve future BMS.
Flavio Stochino et al aimed to propose a new fast and low cost
condition rating method for RC bridge network.
7. Reason/Justification for the Selection of the Topic:
“To evaluate construction types and damage trends of bridges on
National highways of Pakistan via an automated system that helps
envision and plan future repair efforts.”
8. Objectives:
 Collect sample pool data sets to represent target areas.
 Define criterion against which data is to be evaluated.
 Formulate Bridge management algorithm to evaluate the
data.
 Analyze trends of construction type, damage type, severity
of damages and overall CIs (Condition indicator) of bridges
against different parameters.
 Evaluate damage causes and surmise future construction
and repair methodology considerations.
 Formulate maintenance prioritization system.
9. Relevance to National Needs:
Advanced technology has been growing very fast in the world for
checking the response of a building under different loadings and
conventional methods are being discarded as they are old and time
consuming. Pakistan is far behind in the software technology usage in
field and most of the work is done through conventional methods. My
aim for research is to get people motivated for using advanced
technology to simulate the crack growth behavior under different
loading conditions through advanced fracture mechanics rather than
relying on old slow and less accurate methods. This research will be
helpful for usage of advanced methodologies to predict crack growth in
civil engineering field.
10. Advantages:
 Data collection system implemented is an efficient &
practical procedure.
 Damage rank & classified evaluation utilized are adequate
representatives of structure condition.
 Bridge management algorithm utilized is efficient & an
accurate tool for raw data evaluation.
 Parameters defined for trend analysis yield useful
information for concluding future construction and repair
methodology considerations.
 Classified evaluation system can be used for practical & cost
effective maintenance prioritization.

11. Areas of Application:

Bridge management system n built in developing countries.
References:
[1] Vincenzo Gattulli, Leonardo Chiaramonte. Condition Assessment by Visual
Inspection for a Bridge Management System. Computer-Aided Civil and
Infrastructure Engineering. 2005;95-107.
[2] Mehran Gholami, Abdul Rahman Bin Mohd Sam, Jamaludin Mohamad
Yatim. Assessment of Bridge Management System in Iran. Elsevier. 2013; 573
– 583.
[3] Maria Rashidi, Bijan Samali, Pezhman Sharafi. A new model for bridge
management: Part A: condition assessment and priority ranking of bridges.
Australian Journal of Civil Engineering. 2015; 2204-2245.
[4] Yoseok Jeong, WooSeok Kim, Ilkeun Lee & Jaeha Lee. Bridge inspection
practices and bridge management programs in China, Japan, Korea, and U.S.
Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance. 2018; 2470-5322.
[5] Flavio Stochino, Maria Luisa Fadda, Fausto Mistretta. Low cost condition
assessment method for existing RC bridges. Engineering Failure Analysis.
2017; 1350-6307.
 Annex ‘B’ Form TH-1
Proposed Timeline for Research
Rules/Regulation Awareness
● 20 / Nov/ 2022
Are you aware of your last date to complete thesis
(without Rector’s extension) Please mention date. Date
● Are you aware of the regulations and schedule of the Yes / No
University for MS programmes?
● Are you aware of the plagiarism policy? Yes / No
● Have you read the HEC Policy on PG programmes? Yes / No

● Did you receive a copy of the PG Handbook? Yes / No

● Have you attended any MS/PhD thesis seminar? Yes / No
● If Yes, No of thesis / seminar ________________

Proposed Timeline
Ser Activity To be completed by
(Date)
1 Literature Review 30 / August / 2022
2 Experimentation of brick wallet 30 / November / 2022
3 Simulating Masonry responses 10 / December / 2022
4 Parametric Studies on 3D Model 30 / December/ 2022
5 Result Deduction and Validation. 10 / January/ 2023
6 Thesis Writing 20 / January / 2023
J Final defense 20 February / 2023

________________ ________________
(Student’s Signature) (Supervisor’s Signature)
Name: M. Haseeb Amjad . Name: Dr Ather Ali .
Regn No: 329942 . Date: 24-12-2022 .
Note: Any change in the proposed timeline is to be intimated to the PGP Dte by
submitting fresh Annex ‘B’ to TH-1.