Project: Heat transfer enhancement in heat exchangers
Status: Ongoing
Description: Fin and tube heat exchangers are widely used in the industry because of the heat exchanger required for a specific heat transfer load compared to the one with plain fin and therefore decreased material costs for the manufacturer. This project focuses on heat transfer enhancement in heat exchangers by various passive design strategies. These strategies enhancing the flow in a way that turbulence is only created in areas where it is the most beneficial. This is done by utilizing vortex generators or other guide vanes to create longitudinal vortices to the flow. Furthermore, advanced fin patterns or configurations provide considerable heat transfer enhancement with reasonable pressure loss.

Project: Development of Controlled Solar Dryer System
Status: Ongoing

Description: No single dryer technology is appropriate for all users and for all conditions as the performance varies under varied operating conditions. Different types of dryers are utilized for drying different food products (fruits, vegetables, grains, etc.) under different operating conditions. In this project, an improved solar dryer system is being developed which can be used to dry a variety of products for different applications. In addition to the enhanced drying efficiency, the improved system will have several unique features that make the design highly cost-competitive and entirely environmentally friendly.

Project: Performance Testing of Air-Cooled Condenser Tube Bundles along with Establishing Their Theoretical Correlation
Status: Ongoing

Description: Water shortage was the main obstacle to the construction of the power plants near the arid areas. In these areas, the ACCs (air-cooled condensers) offer great advantages. ACCs consist of an array of fan units whose function is to condense the steam. A change in the heat rejection rate directly influences the output of the steam turbine. Therefore, it is essential to understand and predict the factors and mechanisms that affect the heat rejection rate of ACCs.

Project: Experimental study of pool boiling on conventional, mini and micro tubes
Status: Ongoing
Description: The magnitude of latent heat of vaporisation of liquid is higher as compared to its specific heat. This become a major factor for implementing two phase heat transfer mechanisms in cooling techniques. Pool boiling is cost effective, simple and prevalent amongst all available two-phase cooling schemes. Scarcity of quantitative data, qualitative theories and explanations in the area of mini and micro tubes makes them an interesting domain of research. Moreover, the conventional tubes have many industrial applications. The study includes derivation of correlations for heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux.

Project: Design of Vortex Flow Generator to Optimize the Heat Transfer Enhancement in a Straight Tube
Status: Ongoing
Description: Heat exchange is an integral part of all processes in the present era. Improvement in the performance of heat exchanger leads to substantial energy cost savings. The inserts are used as passive enhancement methods which do not require external power. The research objective is to determine the thermal performance of straight tubes with different inserts. Effect of different enhancement methods on wall temperature distribution and spatial variation in heat transfer coefficient is analysed. The best suitable methods with high heat transfer enhancement will be identified from the study. The concept will apply to develop a high-performance heat exchanger.

Project: Design and development of SMAW electrode coatings for dissimilar metal welds in USC/AUSC applications
Status: Ongoing
Description: This project aims to develop SMAW electrode coatings to join different steels which are used in the thermal power plant application. Candidate materials used in this study are P22 (Ferritic Steel), P91 (Martensitic Steel), SS304L (Austenitic steel) and Inconel-617. Electrode coatings were developed to fabricate P22/P91, P91/SS304 and SS304/IN-617 dissimilar welds. Experimentation was performed to evaluate the microstructural changes and mechanical characterization which includes hardness profile, tensile strength, the impact strength of the base materials, as well as dissimilar welds.

Project: High temperature molten salt corrosion investigations on power plant boiler materials and their dissimilar welds.
Status: Ongoing

Description: This project aims to study the high temperature corrosion behavior of boiler grade steels and alloys under the exposure of aggressive molten salt mixtures. Candidate materials used in this investigation are P22 (Ferritic Steel), P91 (Martensitic Steel), SS304L (Austenitic steel) and Inconel-617. The hot corrosion investigations are performed on the base materials as well as P22/P91, P91/SS304 and SS304/IN-617 dissimilar welds.

Project: Experimental Investigations on Dissimilar Metal Weld for Offshore Application
Status: Ongoing

Description: This project aims at fabrication and experimental characterization of dissimilar super duplex stainless steel 2507/high strength low alloy API X70 weld used in hydrocarbon drilling risers and oil-gas pipelines. Welds have been fabricated using SMAW and GTAW processes. Effect of austenitic 309L and super duplex 2594 filler wires has been studied on mechanical and microstructural behavior of fabricated welds.  SMAW electrode coatings have been developed and suggested as an alternative to commercially available ones. The sustainable engineering approach has been followed by utilizing iron ore mineral waste red ochre in the electrode coating composition.

Project: Aerodynamic investigation of 3D “clap and fling” motion with lattice Boltzmann Method
Status: Ongoing
Description: This study focuses on the analysis of the fluid dynamics associated with the flapping motion employed mostly by tiny insects which operate in low Reynolds number regime. Wing-wake interaction leads to an increase in lift and “clap-and-fling” produces higher lift as compared to hovering and is therefore used by most small insects such as Drosophila melanogaster. A three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann numerical model mimicking the insect kinematics will be developed to probe the aerodynamics.

Project: Experimental Investigation of a Dynamically Scaled Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle
Status: Ongoing
Description: The aim of this project is to study the operational regimes of flapping wing MAV for given planform design through conducting experiments on a dynamically scaled wing in water with different wing kinematics and to identify the optimum flapping parameters. In this regard, the focus will be on improving the aerodynamic performance and efficiency of a flapping wing by quantification of lift and drag with the help of six-axis Force/Torque transducer. Other than the wing kinematics, the aerodynamic efficiency of a flapping wing MAV can be increased by improvements in wing design and/or decreasing its weight by using lightweight materials.

Project: Computational hemodynamics and rheological models for blood flow
Status: Ongoing
Description: Cerebro- and cardio-vascular diseases remain the leading cause of mortality in the world and are linked to hemodynamics. CFD simulations using medical image based geometries have a huge potential as a tool for diagnosis and treatment. This work aims to present different models used in lattice Boltzmann Method to model blood as a viscoelastic Non-Newtonian fluid to understand the complex rheological nature of blood upon the dynamics of cerebral and cardiovascular diseases.

Project: Development of lattice Boltzmann solver to study electrorheolgical fluids
Status: On-going
Description: ER fluids are complex particle-laden flows whose rheology is strongly influenced by the presence of an electric or magnetic field. The viscosity of smart fluids increases by an order of and restored back within milliseconds and has applications in mechanical devices (valves, dampers, brakes, etc.), the biomedical sector (reduction in blood viscosity, blood clotting, etc.). A fully parallel particle fluid interaction numerical framework comprising of combined discrete element - lattice Boltzmann method (DEM-LBM) will be developed to examine the electrorheological (ER) behavior.

Project: Aerodynamic noise reduction of a flapping wing unmanned aerial vehicle
Status: Proposed
Description: Noiseless locomotion is a prerequisite of unmanned aerial vehicles, especially when spying in enemy terrains and not significant attention has been paid on this aspect. Owls have distinctive wing morphologies that enable an inaudible flapping flight and can be a guiding principle for designing the next-generation UAVs. An in-house numerical flow solver based on the entropic lattice Boltzmann method (ELBM) will be developed to perform the turbulence simulations and examine the aerodynamics of owl flight. The noise generation due to flapping can be measured with the help of aeroacoustics solver based on the Ffowcs-Williams-Hawkings (FWH) equation.

Project: Design and development of novel BCC and FCC high entropy alloys (HEAs) for structural high-temperature applications
Status: Proposed
Description: This project aims to develop novel BCC and FCC high entropy alloys (HEAs) for structural high-temperature applications such as airborne parts, turbine engine blades, shipbuilding, etc. HEAs will be developed using a vacuum induction casting technique. The homogenized and subsequently cold-rolled specimens will be used for the evolution of microstructure and recrystallization kinetics during thermo-mechanical processing of developed HEAs. Electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with the energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mode of electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) will be used for the microstructural and textural characterization.

Project: Investigation of the process-induced residual stresses during machining of Tungsten and its alloys
Kaushal A. Desai and Rajesh K. Khatirkar, Co-PI
Status: Proposed
Description: The objective of this project is to relate stress development and relief with local microstructural changes associated with the manufacturing process. The study also aims to develop an appropriate multi-scale evaluation method linking residual stress (RS) acting at the macroscopic scale, with an underlying microstructure where RS originate. Moreover, the optimization of processing parameters during the manufacturing process such as turning operation under dry and wet lubrication conditions to provide a better surface finish which will attribute to low or compressive RS and high material removal rate (MRR). In this proposed project, Taguchi's method will be applied to determine optimal parametric combinations and to investigate the influence of various turning parameters such as cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut on surface roughness (R_a) and MRR to achieve better machining performance.

Project: Shock Wave Interaction with Various Interfaces 
Status: Ongoing
Description: Shock or blast waves are high intense pressure waves generated due to large deposition of energy over a finite space, like in an explosion. In recent times, shock waves were utilized for many ‘constructive’ applications especially in biomedical engineering, like the needles vaccine delivery, shock wave lithotripsy, and wound healing. In all these applications a controlled shock wave propagating through air or body fluid is made to interact with the tissues, resulting in shock wave interaction with interfaces separated by two mediums. The interaction of shock wave with interface causes subsequent reflection and refraction of the wave leading to localized pressure jump and complex shock patterns which are not yet properly understood. The present study thus focuses on the shock wave interaction characteristics with interfaces produced by various mediums using experimental studies.

Project: Cross Flow Flapping Jets for Supersonic Mixing Enhancement 
Status: Ongoing
Description: This research aims to advance the frontiers of supersonic air-fuel mixing, particularly in the context of cross flow injection. The present study explores novel methods to enhance the efficiency of cross flow injection, particularly by inducing the cross flow jet to flap. A flapping cross flow jet is expected to increase the cross flow momentum and turbulence which enhances the mixing characteristics. In the present study, various active and passive control strategies will be investigated to create flapping cross flow jets. A detailed investigation of various flow characteristics, such as, turbulence production, vortex structure and shock interactions etc. are also planned to be carried out using experimental and computational studies.

Project: Cascaded Latent Heat Storage (CLHS) for high temperature CSP applications: material development and characterization to lab-scale setup 
Status: Ongoing
Description: The design of latent heat-based thermal storage is one of the less developed areas and has a huge potential for high temperature solar thermal applications. Very few existing solar thermal plants in the world have the testing facility for thermal storage systems, and the existence of testing facilities with latent heat storage systems is even fewer. The design of latent heat-based thermal storage aims at achieving stringent heat transfer requirements with optimal compactness and reliability. Cascaded latent heat storage (CLHS) is one of the best possible ways of storing thermal energy in the latent heat form allowing minimum consumption of storage material.

Project: Shrinkage induce flow and shrinkage defect evolving during solidification of pure substance 
Status: Ongoing
Description: Although shrinkage during solidification is fundamental phenomena, Analytical and numerical models associated with the physics is underdeveloped till date. The project aims at developing physics-based analytical and numerical models to capture the effect of shrinkage on casting products during the solidification process of pure and alloy materials.

Project: Thermal modeling of PCM cool vest and warm jacket 
Status: Completed
Description: The extreme climate can vary core body temperatures (~37 ⁰C) beyond a normal band of ± 1⁰C. This variation can result in life-threatening consequences. The phase change material (PCM) based cool & warm vests can provide thermal comfort to persons working in extreme hot & cold climate respectively. The project aims at the design and development of warm and cool vests consisting of warm or cool PCM packs optimally located within the vest, along with the development of thermal manikin. The major challenge is developing a multi-scale model for the solidification of undercooled PCM covering nucleation to dendritic growth to macro-scale solidification features.

Project: Parabolic dish solar cooker- An alternative design approach towards achieving high grade thermal energy storage solution 
Status: Ongoing
Description: Parabolic dish concentrator based solar cooker is a highly promising alternative green technology suitable for a wide variety of cooking involving grilling, frying, simmering and boiling (temperature range of 250-350 ). The utilization of solar energy reduces dependence on fossil fuels, resulting lower carbon footprints. Development and integration of a compact thermal storage cum cooking unit involving latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) plays a crucial role to overcome the severe limitation associated with the duration and availability of solar irradiation. The project aims at design and development of a market ready solar cooker capable of cooking not only during on-sun hours but also during off-sun period.

Project: Local composite geo-textile mats for soil and water conservation in Western Rajasthan 
Status: Completed
Description: In this study the geotextile mats of different size specifications were manufactured from ropes derived of different shrubs locally found in Thar Desert. Further specifically, strength parameters for Crotalaria Burhia are vetted against the other local natural and inorganic synthetic fibres used for similar purposes such as Leptadenia Pyrotechnica and Calotropis Procera. It is implicated from the study that Crotalaria Burhia is better and more viable for rope, rooftop cover and mat production.

Project: Run-of-River based Water Wheel at Kelia Village, Junagarh, Kalahandi, Odisha
Status: Completed
Description: In this project, a water wheel is designed and installed over an irrigation canal flowing through Kelia Village, Junagarh, at Kalahandi, Odisha. The installation is appended with a complete gear box and centrifugal turbo-pump of 3hp to lift water from the downstream of the canal. A one and half year operation and maintenance study is also performed. Civil engineering construction of the run-of-river model was also performed.

Project: Truncated Unglazed Percolative Clay Ceramic Ware as a Modified Pitcher Irrigation System
Status: Completed
Description: In this project, a new modification to traditional sub-surface irrigation to enable faster rate of saline soil remediation was performed. This is a new form of subsurface porous vessel-based irrigation technology where leaching is optimized in order to enable plant to grow in conditions of high saline soils.

Project: AWEP Management Through ICT
Status: Completed
Description: In this project, a micro-irrigation of okra and eggplant was performed using a bed-planting strategy of farming. An automated irrigation system was developed and showcased. New low-cost automation box with wireless protocols were developed using SMS based farm management tactics. Water and energy management in agriculture using automation and agricultural landscape modification was practicalized. Tablet-based personalized farmer information on farm management and weather was also illustrated.

Project: Nanocomposite fibers for sensing purposes
Status: Proposed
Description: Developing low powered, flexible temperature sensor having high sensitivity and low response time still remains a challenge. Compatible fillers in appropriate concentration within a polymer matrix can bring significant changes in sensor’s performance. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have exceptional mechanical strength, abrasion resistance, thermal and electrical properties although their homogenous dispersion is strenuous due to its non-reactant nature. This project aims at deeper study on CNT-polymer compatibility and their dispersion to produce highly conducting nanocomposite fibers that could be used for fabrication of efficient flexible temperature sensors.

Project: Active control of noise in vibro-acoustic cavities
Status: Ongoing
Description: In active noise control (ANC), secondary noise field is generated by ANC controller such that interference of primary and secondary noise field creates desired sound field. In local ANC, noise at some particular locations is attempted to reduce whereas in global ANC, noise levels throughout the cavity is attempted to reduce. The aim of this project is to develop the efficient active and adaptive algorithms for local and global ANC in vibro-acoustic cavities and its implementation for various practical applications like automotive cabins etc.

Project: In-house Development of Pulse µ-electroforming Set-up to Fabricate High Surface Area Multiscale Structures
Status: Ongoing
Description: In this project, we aim to design and develop pulse electroforming experimental set-up. With this set-up, fabrication of high aspect ratio structures will be performed. Further, various functional metal/metal oxide high aspect micro/nano-structures with aqueous chemical synthesis route over electroform will also fabricated along with studies related to essential properties of fabricated structures with the help of various characterization techniques.

Project: Design and development of true north finding set-up for defense applications
Status: Ongoing
Description: Measure of performance for a state-of-the-art radar system participating in critical tactical missile defense mission is very crucial from the accuracy perspective of the mission requirements. True north plays an important role in radar performance as target azimuth data is provided with reference to true north. So, this work proposes design and development of the In-house set-up for determining the true north for radar application, the measured data with the setup will be analyzed with the help of developed algorithm to determine the accurate true north angle. The proposed set-up will be capable to produce the results with high accuracy in mili-radian level.

Project: Microfabrication assisted multi-step treatment and analysis of textile and antimicrobial manufacturing wastewater
Status: Ongoing
Description: With this project, we aim to offer solution to handle the environmental contamination particularly related to antimicrobial/textile waste obtained from pharmaceutical/textile industries with the help of electrochemical and nanotechnology-based mechanism in single in-house set-up unit equipped with monitoring sensors. This work includes: Design and fabrication of electrochemical processing set-up and filtration set-up having functional nanostructured platform for photocatalytic based degradation; Optimization of design parameters by modeling the fluid dynamics, its simulation and computational studies on absorption kinetics; Experimental investigation for the efficiency of the unit and performance evaluation for real water samples; Implementation of automation for assessing the quality of the treated sample and build whole system ready for a pilot plant to be used for industries.

Project: Dynamic studies for Half-humanoid & Space flying robot
Status: Ongoing
Description: The autonomous operations with robotic systems are an essential component of space exploration missions. The Extravehicular activity (EVA) consumes time and requires a considerable load handling capacity and dexterity exceeding human capability. Realizing the benefits of space robots involves the challenging problem of dynamics, control and motion planning by considering the dynamic interaction between the robotic manipulator and the base (space station, space shuttle, or satellite). Due to the dynamic interaction, the motion of robotic manipulator alters the base trajectory in accordance with the conservation of linear and angular momenta. This mutual dependence severely affects the autonomous operations as well as the performance of both the robot arm and the base, especially when the mass and the moment of inertia of the robot arms are not negligible in comparison to the base. Also, in floating base robots, the kinematic mapping between joint space and inertial space depends on the dynamic parameters, such as mass and inertia. The robot manipulation using the combination of kinematics, dynamics and control to achieve the desired functionality is a major challenge. The energy-efficient path planning, dexterous manipulation and dynamic modeling for environmental interaction of half humanoid and space flying robot will be addressed.

Project: Reactionless Maneuvering and Visual Servoing of Space flying robot and Half-humanoid
Status: Ongoing
Description: Future Space exploration missions evinces zero gravity as a major challenge for autonomous operations. In space environment, the motion of robotic manipulator mounted on a satellite base induces reactions on base due to dynamic coupling. The stationary attitude is desirable for uninterrupted communication and manipulation accuracy. The base attitude correction has been achieved with external motors but consumes high power. The energy efficient functioning of space robot requires new strategies for motion planning as manipulation without the use of attitude controllers is more robust. Researchers have focused on robotic manipulation with zero or minimal change in attitude, which is termed reactionless manipulation. Reactionless manipulation of a robot mounted on a satellite results in the fuel savings and increases the operating life of the system. On the other hand, visual servoing for autonomous operations has also attracted the attention of research community mainly due to its advantages over conventional control through teleportation. The literature work reported on visual servoing of a robot for autonomous operations assume that either the base is free-floating without any attitude control or base has active attitude control and such approach results in additional fuel consumption. The combination of reactionless manipulation and visual servoing can provide benefit of both, i.e., reduced fuel consumption and robust control. Such an approach, however, is seldom reported in literature for multi-arm robot. The reactionless manipulation and visual servoing with stringent requirement is a challenging task. The nano-satellite class (30 cm3) robot affects the path planning strategies and hence requires the specific design and development plan. This motivates to investigate reactionless manipulation and visual servoing of multi-arm space flying robot and half-humanoid. The work focuses on simulation studies and validation of the strategies on earth-based setup and integration to the future space missions.

Project: Energy harvesting for Tire pressure monitoring sensors and other allied applications
Status: Ongoing
Description: Energy harvesting to power sensors is important in a number of applications. This project involves in powering Tire pressure monitoring sensors using vibrational energy. Material selection for vibration harvesters is an important aspect. Both soft and hard PZTs are considered. A lumped parameter model is used for PZT and support structure interaction. The design constraints such as space and packaging issues are taken into account. The limitations of lumped parameter models is also considered. Figures of merit for evaluating performance of PZT harvesters are also discussed.