021184   Bapat N L (KSB Pumps Ltd., , Pimpri, Pune) : Energy conservation in boiler feed pump operation. Indian Pumps 2005, 37(4), 15-19.

3 illus

021183   Banerjee R;Fraser H L (Dep of Mater Sci and Engng, Univ of North Texas, Denton, TX, U.S.A., Email: banerjeeunt.deu) : Predicting and engineering phase stabilities in nanoscale multilayers. Trans Indian Inst Metals 2005, 58(6), 1027-35.

Nanoscale multilayers with dimensionally-constrained layers, often exhibit novel crystal structures and unusual properties. These multilayers possess an improved mechanical properties and corrosion resistance which make them attractive candidates for coatings. In addition, these multilayers also have wide applicability in the areas of information and energy storage. However, successful application of these multilayers is critically dependent on the ability to engineer both their micro-and nano-structures in a controlled manner, which has not been effected. The paper discusses the summary of some of the recent developments in the field of nanoscale multilayers in terms of rationalizing and predicting the phase stability in nanoscale multilayers based on a simple thermodynamic model. Furthermore the study has been able to resolve a standing controversy in the literature and, for the first time, regarding prediction of new phase transitions in given systems. Despite these successes, the model is in a fairly primitive stage of development and warrants further study to develop fully-validated computationally-based model for the prediction of phase stablities in nanoscale multilayered materials.

7 illus, 29 ref

021182   Aloi G;Pace P;Marano S (NO, DEIS-University of Calabria, via P Bucci, Cubo 42C VII piano, 1-87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy, Email: aloi@deis.unical.it) : Multimedia GEO satellite architecture based on DVB-RCS: admission control issue for high interactivity traffic sources. IETE J Res 2006, 52(2-3), 97-104.

Multimedia satellite systems are viewed as viable service vehicles for traditional entertainment broadcasting. They are also potential supplements for the existing wire-line and legacy networks in meeting the increasing demand for Internet and multimedia oriented broadband access at demographically dispersed areas. Objective of the work is the comparison of a new Connection Admission Control (CAC) algorithm that guarantees an elevated multiplexing level and also a good quality of service to real-time multimedia traffic sources mapped over DVB-RCS standard service classes with a well-known iterative CAC mainly designed for the managing of real-time bursty traffic sources. Simulation results show that the performances of the proposed CAC, compared with the previous one, are the same but the last one has a very low computational complexity. In particular, the proposed scheme is based on a few elementary sums and products operations and has a linear computational complexity while the reference algorithm presents a quadratic one. Both algorithms guarantee the agreed QoS to real-time bursty connections that are more sensitive to delay jitter but the proposed one can manage also real-time multimedia traffic sources with high interactivity data level.

8 illus, 3 tables, 15 ref

021181   Agrawal S;Gaiwak A;Vyavahare P D (Electron and Telecommun Dep, SGS Inst of Technol, 23 Park Road, Indore-452 003) : Performance evaluation and comparison of TCP algorithms in static multihop wireless networks. IETE J Res 2006, 52(2-3), 193-206.

Wireless ad hoc networks are characterised by multihop wireless connectivity and limited bandwidth shared among neighbouring nodes. Investigated and evaluated the performance of TCP NewReno, TCP SACK and TCP Vegas in this kind of network over AODV routing protocol and the wireless LAN standard IEEE 802.11 MAC layer. The performance of these TCP variants was compared on the basis of several performance measures that include throughput, retransmission ratio, average congestion window size and routing overhead. Simulation results using ns-2.28 show that TCP Vegas achieves between 15% and 130% more throughput, around 99% less packet retransmissions and around 93% less routing overhead than TCP NewReno and TCP SACK. Gives insight on the particular reasons for such performance advantages of TCP Vegas in comparison to TCP NewReno and TCP SACK. Furthermore, investigated the performance of these TCP algorithms when they are run with the Delayed Acknowledgment (DA) option defined in IETF RFC 1122, which allows the TCP receiver to transmit an ACK for every two incoming packets. Simulation results show that use of DA option substantially improves the performance for TCP NewReno and TCP SACK. It also results in performance improvement for TCP Vegas but as not as much as that of TCP NewReno and for longer hop connections, it can even cause throughput degradation of Vegas. Also observed the effect of TCP packet size on the throughput and packet delivery ratio of TCP NewReno and Vegas. Simulation results show that an increase in packet size reduces the fraction of packets delivered successfully. Increasing the packet size increases the throughput till a certain threshold and there is a decrease in throughput after the threshold.

13 illus, 3 tables, 17 ref

021180   Aggarwal A;Hari Singh (Mechanical and Automn Engng Dep, Maharaja Agrasen Inst of Technol, Sector 22, Rohini, Delhi-110 085) : Optimization of machining techniques - a retrospective and literature review. Sadhana 2005, 30(6), 699-711.

An attempt has been made to review the literature on optimizing machining parameters in turning processes. Various conventional techniques employed for machining optimization include geometric programming, geometric plus linear programming, goal programming, sequential unconstrained minimization technique, dynamic programming etc. The latest techniques for optimization include fuzzy logic, scatter search technique, genetic algorithm, Taguchi technique and response surface methodology.

1 table, 58 ref

020070   Singh R K;Singh Y N (Electl Engng Dep, Indian Inst of Technol, Kanpur-208 016, Email: {rajatks, ynsingh}@iitk.ac.in) : Photonic packet switching architectures. IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(1), 15-34.

Progress in the research on photonic packet switches has been reviewed. A descriptive overview of the major activities in telecommunications has been given and put in perspective with each other.

16 illus, 1 table, 12 ref

020069   Sharma R (Ocean Engng and Nav Architecture Dep, Indian Inst of Technol, Kharagpur-721 302) : Computer-aided design of bow thrusters for marine vehicles. J Instn Engrs-Pt MA 2006, 86(Jan), 33-41.

Paper discusses a computer-aided design procedure for the bow thruster. Paper discusses the hydrodynamic forces and moments produced by bow thruster and their incorporation in the design process. The various design parameters (i.e., general duct arrangement, duct diameter, shape, weight, and impeller design) are discussed in the case of bow thruster design for marine vehicles. In this paper, a minimum number of operational requirements, e.g., single bow thruster, a specified turing rate, a duty cycle and a wind speed against which it can be cleared without tug-assistance are considered. In recent times different types of thrusters have been installed and proposed for consideration and development, i.e. single and multiple units installed near the ship's and/or stern, axial flow impellers (embracing fixed pitch, controllable pitch, counter rotating), cyclodial impellers, and jet configurations such as ejectors ram etc. The various types of thrusters are also briefly reviewed in this work. Finally, one design example of bow thruster design for marine vehicle (i.e., a feeder container ship) has been presented, with a comparative study with the existing method of preliminary selection for design parameters in the case of blow thruster design.

3 illus, 6 tables, 16 ref

020068   Sarala V;Pandharipande V M (RCI DRDO Vigyankancha, , Hyderabad-500 069, Email: vihampande@yahoo.com) : Analysis and design of equilateral triangular microstrip patch antenna with microstrip feed. IETE J Res 2006, 52(1), 3-10.

Paper presents analysis and design of Equlateral Triangular Microstrip Patch (ETMP) antenna. The method of determining accurate resonant frequency of such a structure is described having close agreement between theory and experiments. The technique to reduce the equivalent aperture area by loading the triangular patch with short circuit posts is also presented. Simulated results are compared with the experimental data.

7 illus, 3 tables, 11 ref

020067   Prem Sagar;Kal S (Electron and Electl Commun Engng Dep, Indian Inst of Technol, Kharagpur-721 302, Email: srkala@ece.iitkgp.ernet.in) : Modeling of micromachined piezoresistive pressure sensors. IETE J Res 2006, 52(1), 11-16.

Paper presents a model for piezoresistive pressure sensor. The model assumes a plane stress condition and it accounts for the finite stiffness of the step up support, which is represented by elastically restrained boundary condition. Variation of stress due to thermal mismatch between silicon and dielectrics and change in piezoresistance due to temperature and dopant concentration of the silicon piezoresistors is also taken into account. Finite difference method has been used to implement the model and results are verfied by comparing with the results available in the literature.

9 illus, 16 ref

020066   Panda G;Meher S K (Electron and Commun Engng Dep, Natn Inst of Technol, Rourkela-769 008) : An efficient hybrid image compression scheme using DWT and ANN techniques. IETE J Res 2006, 52(1), 17-26.

High rate data compression is an essential task in the present world of digital communication. Individually, the wavelet transform (WT) based compression method is able to provide a compression ratio of about 20-30, which is not adequate for many practical situations. The main motivation of this article has proposed a novel hybrid approach which would offer higher compression ratio than the wavelet transform (WT) alone keeping the quality of reproduced image identical in both cases. This is cachieved with the incorporation of a second image compressor in sequence with WT so that the overall compression becomes better than the of individual method. The second compressor used in the paper is based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The WT is employed to achieve the first stage of compressiuon, which is followed, by a second stage of compression using the ANN technique. In the ANN technique both multi layered ANN (MLANN) and the radial basis function (RBF) networks have ben proposed. The compression performance has been assessed in terms of peak-signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR) and energy retained in the reconstructed image. Through computer simulation it has been demonstrated that the combined approach offers high rate of compression maintaining identical reconstructed image quality compared to its WT counterpart.

9 illus, 33 ref

020065   Nageswara Rao D;Das H N;Suman K N S;Prasad V V S (Mechanical Engng Dep, Andhra Univ, Visakhapatnam-530 003) : Performance prediction of an elliptical headform profile of a submerged body. J Instn Engrs-Pt MA 2006, 86(Jan), 46-9.

An attempt has been made for the application of RANS and CFD code to select a suitable elliptical head form profile for a submerged body, which is predominatly used as an under water vehicle. The over all drag of the body and the dynamic pressure distributiion over the eliptical head form profiles are the parameters considered for selection of the suitable profile. Elliptical head form profiles with different dimensions have been generated and the parameters considered for the analysis have been analyzed over the body.

6 illus, 6 ref

020064   Mitra A K (NO, , Marine Engineer, UK) : Relevance of condition based maintenance onboard a ship. J Instn Engrs-Pt MA 2006, 86(Jan), 50-5.

Paper highlights the relevance of condition-based maintenance onboard a ship which involves regular monitoring of equipment and is aimed at forestalling breakdown bypredicting probable failure of the system. Paper also describes the condition-based monitoring which has been found to be quite efficient onboard ship due to random nature of many failures.

1 illus

020063   Mitra A (ECE Dep, Indian Inst of Technol, Guwahati-781 039, Email: a.mitra@iitg.ernet.in) : On roundoff errors in block-floating-point arithmetic. IETE J Res 2006, 52(1), 45-51.

A special case of floating point data representation is block floating point format where a block of operands are forced to have a joint exponent term. Paper deals with the finite wordlength properties of this data format. The theoretical errors associated with the error model for block floating point quantization process is investigated with the help of error distribution functions. A fast and easy approximation formula for calculating signal-to-noise ratio in quantization to block floating point format is derived. This representation is found to be efficient compared to the fixed point and flating point format.

7 illus, 1 table, 16 ref

020062   Lalwani S;Dogra T D;Bhardwaj D N;Sharma R K; Murty O P (Dep of Forensic Med and Toxicol, , Room No. 1054, Teaching Block AIIMS, Ansari Nagar, Email: sanjulalwani2001@yahoo.com) : Efficacy of filter plant in removal of arsenic from water of Yamuna river. Indian J community Med 2005, 30(4), 140-1.

Arsenic level measured in water of Yamuna river was found to be in the range of 0.032-0.064 ppm (Mean value-0.051 SD-0.013 and Std. error of mean -0.00363). The arsenic level at Halalpur where Yamuna water comes through Paschim Nahar was 0.037 ppm and at Wazirabad the entry point at Delhi was 0.032-0.48 ppm. At Okhla the exit Point of Yamuna river in Delhi, maximum arsenic level detected was 0.080 ppm. In water samples of Chandrawal and Nangloi arsenic level were 0.056-0.064 ppm and 0.050-0.060 respectively. The water samples of filtered water collected from different treatment plants were showing arsenic level ranging from 0-0.009 ppm (Mean value-0.00192, SD-0.0004, Std. error of mean-0.00001341). Out of two samples taken from treatment plant Wazirabad arsenic level was found 0.000 & 0.009 ppm, from treatment plant Chandrawal 0.000-0.008 ppm, teatment plant Nangloi 0.000-0.009. Two water samples from each treatment plant of Okhla, Gokulpuri and Haiderpur shows arsenic level far less than the detectable range of the instrument.

^ssc12 ref

020061   Khankhoje U;Gadre V M (Electl Enineering Dep of Electl Engng, Indian Inst of Technol Bombay, Bombay-400 076, Email: udaykdk@ec.iitb.ac.in) : Optimal fractional Fourier domains for quadratic chirps. IETE J Res 2006, 52(1), 65-70.

The fractional fourier transform can be viewed as a generalization of the Fourier transform. The relation between rotation of a signal in the time-frequency plane to the Fractional Fourier tranform is introduced. In the paper, the fractional Fourier transform and its properties are presented. Further, the problem of finding an optimum fractional Fourier Domain, i.e, one in which the energy of a signal is maximally concentrated, has been discussed for quadratic chirps. A quadratic chirp is a signal whose frequency bears a quadratic relation in time.

8 illus, 4 ref

020060   Khadse G K;Andey S P;Nanoti M V (Geo-Environment Mgmt Div, Natn Envir Engng Res Inst, Nagpur-440 020) : Rural water supply and need for water quality assessment. J envir Sci Engng 2005, 47(3), 242-9.

Water quality analyses were carried out on surface and subsurface samples collected from four villages in Nagpur district. Out of 68 samples, 36 had TDS exceeding the desirable limit i.e. 500 mg/l, out of which one dug well from Parsodi exceeded the permissible limit- 2000 mg/l. Fluoride concentration in 3 sources exceeded desirable limit 1.0 mg/l. Nitrate exceeded desirable limit of (45 mg/l) in 18 sources, out of which one borewell sample from Salwa exceeded the permissible limit - 100 mg/l. The iron content found 1.0 mg/l in 9 samples and 3.9 mg/l in one handpump water sample from Salwa. Total hardness exceeded permissible limit (600 mg/l) in 8 samples. Maximum hardness (3,582 mg/l), chloride (1,716 mg/l) and magnesium (572 mg/l) were observed in dug well samples from Parsodi. Trace metal concentrations in all the samples were well within the desiragle limit. Arsenic was not observed in any samples. Pesticide levels found within the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) guidelines regulated for drinking water. 71% of the sources were positive for TC, out of which 94% and 79% sources were found positive for FC and FS respectively. Significant increase in bacterial counts between sources and eventual use has been noticed.

3 tables, 3 ref

020059   Kelkar P S;Andey S P;Dhage S S (Natn Envir Engng Res Inst, , Nagpur) : Investigation of the performance of non-conventional pressure filter system in potable water treatment. J envir Sci Engng 2005, 47(3), 232-41.

The biflow pressure filter system installed at a residential cmpus was investigated for its performance under different oprating conditions. The investigation was carried out to evaluate raw water quality, chemical dosing systems, filter media and overall filtration performance. Treatability studies were carried out to decide optimum doses of chemicals used in potable water treatment system. It was found that the biflow pressure system could not deliver filtrate of desired quality and therefore its use in potable water treatment may cause ill effects in human-beings.

2 illus, 10 tables, 3 ref

020058   Jeevananthan S;Rakesh S (EEE Dep, Pondicherry Engng Coll, Pondicherry-605 014) : A unified time ratio recursion (TRR) Algorithm for SPWM and TEHPWM mmethods: digital implementation and mathematical analysis. IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(1), 71-90.

An efficient algorithm is designed for digital implementation of any regular sampled SPWM (Sinusoiodal pulse width modulation) switching pattern for single phase full-bridge inverter application. The hardware and software of the scheme are built around the 8-bit general-purpose microprocessor. Complete mathematical analysis of meeting points and duty cycle for SPWM is developed for the performance verification of the algorithm. The suggested time ratio recursion (TRR) algorithm generates the PWM patterns with close agreements with theoretical results, and is a universal one applicable to the modified PWM patterns viz. HPWM (hybrid pulse width modulation), TEHPWM (thermal equalization hybrid pulse width modulation), etc. TRR takes reduced number of comparisons as compared with the linear search (used in many microprocessor-based control circuits) and hence converges at a faster rate.

25 illus, 3 tables, 17 ref

020057   Govil J;Balbir Kumar (Electron and Commun Engng Div, Netaji Subhas Inst of Technol (University of Delhi), Dwarka, New Delhi-110 075) : Wireless LAN and IEEE standards. IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(1), 47-60.

This paper elicits the benfits of Wireless LANs (WLANs) and provides information about IEEE 802.11 standard with an introduction to 802.11 n standard. The gamut of WLAN configurations have been detailed along with WLANs deployment technologies and their working. In addition, IEEE 802.11 layered protocol architecture and general MAC frame format has been described. The power considerations, Voice over WLAN and hidden node problems have also been addressed. Not only the paper outlines the key security vulnerabilities and interference issues with Bluetooth in the wireless LAN architecture but also explains the shortcomings of WLANs.

10 illus, 1 table, 29 ref

020056   Goel A K;Saxena S C;Bhanot S (GZS Coll of Engng and Technol, , Bathinda-155 001, Email: ashokkgoel@rediffmail.com) : Modified functional link ANN based controller for thermal processes. IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(1), 3-14.

Modified functional link ANN (M-FLANN) based controller has been designed and implemented on simulated water bath temperature control system. The performance of this controller has been compared with Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Direct Linear Feed-through Ann (DFLANN) Functional link ANN (FLANN)and Fuzzy logic (FLC) and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers on the same process. Their performances have been evaluated under identical conditions with respect to set-point regulation, effect of unknown disturbances and variable lag times. It has been found that the M-FLANN controller has better performance compared to other controllers. The results have been further confirmed by implementing and comparing the four ANN controllers on Continually Stirred Tank Heater (CSTH); a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) process.

5 illus, 2 tables, 15 ref

020055   Gandhi A S;Dighe A M (Electron & Computer Sci Dep, Visvesvaraya Natn Inst of Technol, Nagpur-440 011, Email: asgandhi@vnitnagpur.ac.in) : Performance and error analysis of the algorithms for analog to multi-valued digital conversion. IETE J Res 2006, 52(1), 53-64.

The information content in the output of the algorithms is determined. The results are used to derive an expression for a figure of merit of the algorithms. The figure-of-merit is the basis of generalised implementation architectures. Also, the analysis of the behaviour of the generalised algorithms in the presence of comparison error is presented. General strategies for A/D conversion error correction are developed based on the analysis results.

2 tables, 5 ref

020054   Arivazhagan S;Gnanaadura D;Antony Vance J R; Sarojini K M;Ganesan L (Electron and Commun Engng Dep, Mepco Schlenk Engng Coll, Mepco Engineering College Post Sivakasi-626 005) : Performance analysis of embedded zero tree wavelet coder. IETE J Res 2006, 52(1), 71-8.

The performance of Embedded Zero tree Wavelet (EZW) coder for diferent levels of decomposition, with and without entropy encoding and for different scanning order are analyzed for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Images. PSNR is used as the criteria for the measurement of reconstructed image quality.

10 illus, 2 tables, 10 ref

019248   Yadav J P;Singh O (Mechanical Engng Dep, Harcourt Butler Technol Inst, Kanpur) : Thermodynamic analysis of air cooled simple gas/steam combined cycle plant. J Instn Engrs-Pt MC 2006, 86(Jan), 217-22.

Apart from the performance evaluation of air cooled simple gas/steam combined cycle plants the cooling model for air/steam cooling has also been used to evaluate the cooling requirements.

10 illus, 16 ref

019247   Tyagi S K (Def Electron Applics Lab, , Raipur Road, Dehradun 248 001) : Development of semi-anechoic shielded chamber using ferrite - PU foam hybrids. IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(2), 105-11.

Combination of 30 cm long pyramid of carbon based polyurethane foam and 5.6 mm Ni-Zn ferrite tiles has been developed and used to make an existing shielded chamber "Anechoic". The tile-foam hybrid provides wide frequency range coverage in order to minimise the reflections of EM energy from walls and celling as well as occupies less volume of the chamber. The field within the chamber was found to vary tothe maximum of 6 dB, which may be regarded 'at par' in comparison with other anechoic chambers reported.

6 illus, 1 table, 8 ref

019246   Thomas J (Civ Engng Dep, Cochin Univ of Sci and Technol, Kochi-682 002) : Utilization of quarry powder as a substitute for the river sand in concrete. J Struct Engng 2005, 32(5), 401-7.

4 illus, 10 tables, 14 ref

019245   Tenny V A (NO, , ) : Gas turbine O & M practices in IFFCO Aonla unit. Process Pl Engng 2005, 23(3), 49-53.

2 tables

019244   Tandon M (Tandon Consultants Pvt. Ltd., , Link Road, 17 Jangpura Extension, New Delhi-110 014) : Economical design of earthquake-resistant bridges. ISET J Earthquake Technol 2005, 42(1), 13-20.

With the occurrence of every major earthquake, there has been in the past, almost a world-wide tendency to increase the capacity demand of the structure to counteract such evernts. It is only in the last decade that new strategies have been successfully developed to handle this problem economically. The current international practice has shifted towards a performance-based engineering design, wherein the accent is on serviceability and safety under different levels of magnitude of earthquakes. Also there is an incrasing realization that apart from techniques for improving ductility, the structural engineer's tool-box should include energy-dissipating and energy-sharing devices and those that can control the response of the system. There have also been further advances on appropriate methods and devices of preventing (dislodgement' or unseating) of the superstructure in the event of severe ground shaking. How these ideas can be used in economical earthquake resistant design of bridges has been presented.

15 illus, 9 ref

019243   Sricharan M S;Vaidehi V (Dep of Inf Technol, Madras Inst of Technol Anna Univ, Chennai-600 044) : Location management in wireless systems. IETE Tech Rev 2005, 22(6), 449-59.

The next generation wireless mobile systems are expected to provide seamless mobility across heterogeneous networks that have been established over past several years. The user's mobility should not be restricted to a particular wireless system or network operator or a geographical region. An efficient location management scheme is needed that could perform location registration and paging at the minimum possible cost and signaling load. Paper discusses the issues in location management, the evolution of the location management, a qualitative analysis of all major location management schemes, discuss performance issues, and idscuss some interesting designs of location management schemes for wireless network.

5 illus, 1 table, 38 ref

019242   Shah S R;Dwivedi S K;Parmar Kiran (EC Dep, L D college of Engng, Gujarat 380 015) : 28 GHz notch filter design at institute for plasma research (IPR). IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(2), 99-103.

Development of 28 GHz filter was necessary for protecting the Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE)-diagnostic device, Radiometer. The design and construction of a narrow (Δf ≤ 100 MHz) notch filter explained. Furthermore the design procedure of 10 and 110 GHz has been discussed. Also, the influence of orientation and dimensions of aperture, shape and size of the cavity, length of the wave guide, size of the screw and number of cavities used on the depth of notch and the losses in the pass band studied and presented.

1table, 2 ref

019241   Saxena S;Ramachandra Muthy D S (Regional Res Lab, , Bhopal Hoshangabad Road, Bhopal-462 026) : Fracture mechanics prediction of limit load in circumferentially through-wall cracked pipes. J Instn Engrs-Pt MC 2006, 86(Jan), 182-6.

The transferability of specimen J-R curve to component level is an unresolved issue that currently receives a lot of attention among researchers. Using J-T approach, the study has been carried out on 406 mm outer diameter circumferentially throuh wall cracked (TWC) pipes to predict the limiting load, which will cause fracture instability. The applied elastic-plastic J-integral is obtained by 3D non-linear finite element analysis using advanced fracture analysis code Warp3D and by using J estimation scheme. The J-T analyses results are found to have good comparison with the maximum experimental load.

4 illus, 3 tables, 10 ref

019240   Saravanan S;Yadava G S (NO, Indian Inst of Technol, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110 016) : Vibration monitoring studies on a lathe machine. J Instn Engrs-Pt MC 2006, 86(Jan), 178-81.

Critical sub-system and significant components are identified on a lathe machine based on the failure data. The results of monitoring gear faults using vibration monitoring technique have been discussed.

12 illus, 2 tables, 4 ref

019239   Sadhu P K;Chattopadhyaya S;Mittra D K (Electl Engng Dep Indian Sch of Mines, , Dhanbad-826 004) : On-line monitoring and control system for vulcanization of truck tyres. J Instn Engrs-Pt MC 2006, 86(Jan), 175-7.

Microprocessor-based control of the vulcanizating process is not new and it has become almost traditional. However, the microprocessor based process control has its limitations. A personal computer, on the other hand with its stronger computational ability, better programming flexibility makes it eminently suitable for applicaton in the closed loop control scheme of cure monitoring process of truck tyres. Advanced graphics capabilities of a PC are another attractive feature of its use for the said purpose. The measurement of curing environment has to be done with great care and suitable sensors are required to be installed for this. The parameters to be sensed continuously include layer pressure, temperature of layers, flow rates of cold water, hot circulating water and steam. While the continuous monitoring of layer pressure is done through piezo-electric sensors, the layer temperature is sensed by means of embedded thermistors. Other parameters are monitored by conventional methods. These parameters are continuously measured and downloaded to the personal computer. A multi-channel data acquisition system (DAS) has been used for this. A high speed DAS with high sampling rate can take care of fast changing signals without any problem. A software programme has been developed for reliable data acquisition and process control scheme....

5 illus, 8 ref

019238   Rihani V;Garg S K (Dep of Electronic and Electl Commun, Punjab Engng Coll, Sector 12, Chandigarh, Email: vrihani@yahoo.com.) : Neural networks for prediction of stock market. IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(2), 113-117.

Predicting stock data with traditional time series analysis has proved to be difficult. An artificial neural network may be more suitable for the task. The reason is that no assumption about a suitable mathematical model has to be made prior to forecasting. Furthermore, a neural network has the ability to extract useful information from large sets of data, which often is required for a satisfying description of a financial time series. Discussed the various conventional analysis methods and neural network methodology to forecast a stock market series. Paper also provides the effect of various topological parameters on the accuracy and training time of neural networks. A topology of neural network has been proposed for the prediction of Indian stock market index S&P CNX NIFTY.

1 illus, 14 ref

019237   Rao A B S;Srinath A;Rao A C (NO, K L Coll of Engng, Vaddeswaram, K C Works (PO)-522 502) : Synthesis of planar kinematic chains. J Instn Engrs-Pt MC 2006, 86(Jan), 195-201.

A very simple method based on independent loop(s) assortment and their adjacency is reported. The method presented can be considered as a semi-closed form solution to the problem of synthesis and does not need any test for isomorphism. Further, arriving at the linkage configuration is very easy

8 illus, 32 ref

019236   Rama Raju K;Meher Prasad A;Abdul Malik S; Ramesh M (NO, Structural Engng Res Cent, CSIR Campus, Chennai-600 113) : Effectiveness of nonlinear viscous fluid dampers with upper toggle brace mechanism in vibration control of a steel moment resistant frame model. J Struct Engng 2005, 32(5), 357-64.

Energy dissipation systems like yielding steel devices, friction devices, viscoelastic devices and fluid devices etc. are increasingly used to provide enhanced seismic protection for new/retrofit buildings and bridges normally placed in either diagonal or chevron brace configuration. A 3-storey quarter length scale Steel Moment Resisting Frame (SMRF) model with two non-linear Viscous Fluid Dampers (VFDs) fixed with toggle bracing mechanism placed at ground floor level is designed and fabricated. The dampers used are Magneto-rheological (MR) fluid dampers, RD-1005-3 of Lord Corporation. The study is limited to these dampers subjected zero voltage input, and the nonlinear force-velocity relationship of the same is obtained from experimental study. The model is subejcted to two types of synthetic earthquakes and its base shear, acceleration, inter-storey drifts and displacements are found by non-linear time history analysis using SAP 2000. The reduction in maximum displacement, storey-drift, acceleration and base shear shows the effectiveness of non-linear VFDs with upper toggle brace configuration in 3-storey SMRF model over other types of placement of dampers such as chevron and diagonal bracings. The results show that provision of non-linear VFDs with toggle bracing mechanisms at ground floor level, would act as vibration control devices by dissipating energy at ground floor level where they are placed and controlling the vibration levels of floors above.

12 illus, 3 tables, 11 ref

019235   Rajashekharaiah M;Narula Y;Jha I C;Maiti R (NO, Indian Farmers Fertilisers Coop. Ltd, Phulpur Unit, P.o. Ghiyanagar, Distt Allahabad, Email: raja@iffco.nic.in) : Implementation of Energy Saving Project At IFFCO Phulpur unit. Indian J Fertil 2006, 1(12), 11-20.

IFFCO Phulpur unit is committed to use the energy in the most efficient way. "Energy Conservation" is a major objective for IFFCO as such, and more so, for Phulpur unit. This has enabled to run the 1980 vintage naphtha based ammonia plant of Phulpur-I with better performance level even after 25 years of operation. Ammonia plant of Phulpur-II, a new generation naphtha based plant of late nineties, has been continuously improving its performance by implementing several modifications and by adopting best operating philosophy. IFFCO Phulpur unit is continually striving to be the lowest energy consumer in the fertiliser industry. To achieve its goal, a number of energy conservation schemes have been identified and implemention is being carried out in stages under the Energy Saving Project (ESP). Phase-I of ESP was successfully implemented and envisaged savings were achieved. Phase-II of ESP will be implemented in the forthcoming annual turnaround. The ESP has also contributed in reducing Green House Gas Emission. Highlights the schemes implemented in Phase-I and schemes to be implemented in Phase-II and also describes in details the experiences gained during project execution and implementation.

7 illus

019234   Raghunathan M D;Natarajan P R;Mohan S J (NO, Structural Engng Res Cent, CSIR Campus, Taramani, Chennai-600 113) : Design of 800 kV transmission line towers: a comparative study. J Struct Engng 2005, 32(5), 351-6.

The relative economy of 800 kV transmission line towers has been examined in detail. Three types of towers namely self-supporting, guyed-V and chainette tower were identified, designed and studied. Towers are of tangent type for single circuit line. These were designed for typical tender specification based on Indian codal provisions. Each towr was optimized for selected parameters and studied independently. The comparative economy of the three towers has been presented. The comparision includes material weight, fabrication, erection, foundation and land costs. Suitability, merits and demerits of each tower have been discussed. The material saving against rigid tower is 57% for guyed-V tower and 67% for chainette tower. The chainette tower is more economical than guyed-V tower in terms of material saving (22%). Based on overall cost, study showed that chainette tower is 39% more economical than self-supporting tower and 13% more economical than guyed-V tower.

5 illus, 2 tables, 18 ref

019233   Prabhat Kumar (Structural Engng Div, Cent Bldg Res Inst, Roorkee-247 667) : Representation of initial stresses in elasto-visco-plastic finite element analysis of underground openings. J Struct Engng 2005, 32(5), 365-73.

The available softwares on elasto-visco-plastic finite element analysis, generally, assume that the initial state of the structure is streess free. Describes modifications, which may be be introduced in an available software to account for a non-zero initial stress state of the structure. Complete formulation details are presented and listing of a subroutine is appended. This enables a user to solve wider class of problems through his personal software. the use of modified/extended software is demonstrated by finite-infinite element analysis of an underground opening. More applications are recommended.

7 illus, 2 tables, 14 ref

019232   Patel R C;Shah V K (Instrumentation and Control Engng Dep, L D Coll of Engng, Ahmedabad 380 015) : Experience of using DSP controller in power converter board design. IETE Tech Rev 2005, 22(6), 413-23.

Power converters are the need of the day, may it be process control automation, telecommunication, energy conservation or utility related applications. All kinds of power converters incorporate control unit, which delivers the firing pulse judiciously to the power semiconductor devices and regulates or conditions the load voltage to meet the desired requirements. There are variety of options available in the market to design the control unit. In present era where electronic market is very competitive, it becomes a challenging task for designer to design the control unit because the designer has to select the design or components of the circuitry, which deliver the best performance, without breaking budget. Till date, Micro-controllers were popular choice for such needs. However, now DSP contollers are becoming more popular compared to microcontrollers. Texas Instrument's DSP Controller TMS320F240PQ provides the single chip solution to motor control and power converter applications this article discusses the requirements for the design of prototype 3-phase power converter board and supporting features of DSP Controller TM320F240PQ, which leads to the single chip, bestperormance and economical solution. Exploration of different available options in the electronic market (like discrete Analog components based, FPGA, ASIC, GPP,Conventional controllers, DSP controllers) has been carried out. Prospects and consequences of each are compared with DSP controller and DSPcController's superiority has been justified for the design of prototype power converter board. The article gives the pathway for further study of DSP Controllers in the field of power electronics.

7 illus, 2 table, 13 ref

019231   Mittal V;Kant Khan B (NO, BRCM Coll of Engng and Technol, Bahal, Bhiwani-127 028) : Natural convection in liquid metals subjected to alternating magnetic fields. J Instn Engrs-Pt MC 2006, 86(Jan), 211-16.

Study involves numerical simulation of Navier-Stokes, energy and hydromagnetic equations in order to analyze two dimensional natural convection of liquid metals subjected to variable strength and variable frequency alternating magnetic fields. The spatio-temporal study yields steady to ascillatory fluid flow patterns on variation of intensity and frequency of applied alternating magnetic fields, with increasing Rayleigh numbers. It has been found that the strength of the magnetic field governs the amplitudes of the velocities whilst the frequency controls both the amplitude and the spatial configuration of the flow, for a fixed Rayleigh number (Ra). Increase in Rayleigh number brings about more rigorous mixing for constant strength and frequencies of the alternating magnetic fields. Due to the skin effect, which is more predominant at higher frequencies, electromagnetic force create strong velocity shears that are responsible for generation of secondary rolls at the corners of the enclosure and temporal variation of dynamical variables.

13 illus, 4 tables, 16 ref

019230   Kluge M (NO, ITT Richter Chemie-Technik GmbH, 47906 Kempen) : Designed for continuous use valves and pumps with permeation-resistant lining. Process Pl Engng 2005, 23(3), 66-7.

4 illus

019229   Jaiswal R R (NO, Dr. N P Hirani Inst of Polytechnic, Kerala Road, Pusad 445 215, Email: ravir_jaiswal@rediffmail.com) : Neural network assisted effective lossy compression of medical images. IETE Tech Rev 2006, 23(2), 119-126.

Image compression generally addresses the basic trade off between the quality of reconstructed image, the compression ratio, the complexity and speed of compression algorithm. Work is an application medical image compression using neural network, which allows to carry out both compression and decompression of images with a ratio of 2:1, 4:1 and 8:1. The approach used in medical image compression is to train the network to encode and decode the input data, so that the resulting difference between input and output images is minimized. the network is trained by using resilient backpropagation algorithm. The PSNR obtained varies with compression ratio. The trained network is tested for variety of CT and MRI images and have observed a reconstruction quality ranging from PSNR = 27dB to more than 32dB for 8:1 compression ratio. The work is done using MATLAB.

6 illus, 8 tables, 10 ref

019228   Gunashekar S D;Siddle D R;Warrington E M (Radio Systems Res Grp Engng Dep, Univ of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom, Email: sdg10@le.ac.uk) : Transhorizon radiowave propagation due to evaporation ducting - the effect of tropospheric weather conditions on VHF and UHF radio paths. Resonance 2006, 11(1), 51-62.

An evaporation duct is a weather phenomenon that occurs in the tropospheric region of the atmosphere over the oepn sea and other large water bodies. It has been observed that in addition to being interesting atmospheric occurrences from the meteorological perspective, evaporation ducts have far reaching implications on radio communications over the sea and in coastal regions (e.g. ship to ship and ship to shore communications). They are of particular importance at the extreme limits of propagation and allow radio waves to propagate beyond the horizon. Over the years, much research has been undertaken to explain the mechanism of radiowave propagation in evaporation ducts.

5 illus, 6 ref

019227   Goswami R;Arlekar J N;Murty C V R (Civ Engng Dep, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur-208 016) : Concerns on seismic moment-shear connections using available Indian hot-rolled I-sections. J Struct Engng 2005, 32(5), 343-9.

A rational capacity design method has been presented for determining connection design forces considering increased yield stress of steel, strain-hardening of the beam/column cross-section, and local instability of the beam/column flange and web due to slenderness. A procedure is presented for arriving at shear-moment interaction boundaries at different axial load levels for commonly available Indian steel I-sections. The design procedure outlined in SP:6(6) needs to be upgraded and available Indian sections needs to be remolded to have larger flange widths.

10 illus, 13 ref

019226   Dhekne P Y;Pradhan M;Dewangan P;Verma G R (Dep of Min Engng, Govt Engng Coll, Raipur) : Assessment of excavation method using RMR classification. Indian Min Engng J 2005, 44(11-12), 25-7.

Excavation of the rockmass is an important operation in any mining and construction project. Most of the excavation activity in construction projects is on contractual basis. This warrants that the unit cost of excavation be fixed before the commencement of the actual operations. The unit cost of excavation depends upon the method to be adopted. Excavation methods can be classified as digging, loosening and loading and blasting. The choice of a method depends upon the rock types to which it is applied. It therefore becomes necessary to assess the rock types before hand. Classification based on RMR categorizes the rockmass in three clear categories viz. diggable, rippable and blastable. This classification in clear terms can be used for fixing the unit cost of excavation.

4 illus, 1 table, 4 ref

019225   Deka J R;Bhattacharyya N S (Dep of Phys, Tezpur Univ, Tezpur-784 028) : Development of low cost automated PC-based insertion loss measurement set-up using a simple source and detector in X-Band. IETE Tech Rev 2005, 22(6), 425-34.

A simple microwave source and detector measurement set-up is interfaced to a PC through its printer port for insertion loss measurements of devices in the X-band. The automated set-up not only provides more detailed data at a faster rate but also minimizes operator involvement. The automation is done at minimum cost. Evaluation of the performance characteristics of the set-up indicates that its performance is comparable with much costlier system.

10 illus, 5 table, 6 ref

019224   Das S K (NO, Tata Chemicals Ltd., Babrala Dist. Badaun - 242 021) : (NULL). Indian J Fertil 2006, 1(12), 23-6.

To identify the opportunities for improvement in energy conservation, the most widely used tool is the energy audit. Tata Chemicals Limited carried out an extensive energy audit in the year 2004. A total annual saving opportunity of Rs. 25 crores of energy was identified from the audit findings. the scope, methodology, findings and benefits has been described.

2 illus, 1 table

019223   Dadiani L C (NO, Projects and Dev India Limited, NOIDA, U.P.) : Material handling and bagging in Indian fertilizer industry, with special reference to: automation in bagging plant. Process Pl Engng 2005, 23(3), 40-6.

15 illus, 2 tables

019222   Bhupinder Singh;Singh S P;Sidhu D S;Kaushik S K (Civ Engng Dep, Natn Inst of Technol, Jalandhar-144 011) : Behaviour of reinforced concrete beams in flexure: a nonlinear finite element analysis. J Struct Engng 2005, 32(5), 375-82.

Results of an analytical investigation of the behaviour of reinforced concretebeams in flexure are presented. The complete response of the RCC beams under static loading was obtained using nonlinear finite element techniques implemented with the help of ATENA software. The structural response throughout the loading regime was primarily captured in terms of the load-deflection behaviour which in addition to the post-peak response also charcterises the failure mode of the test beams. The crack patterns at crack initiation, yielding and at ultimate loads were also recorded. The ductility characteristics of the test beams were evaluated in terms of the displacement ductility index and the toughness, the superior response of the under-reinforced section being clearly reflected in the respective values. Issues related to the behaviour of reinforced concrete which have a direct bearing on the finite element modeling of reinforced concrete structures have been discussed with relevance to the software employed for the nonlinear finite element analysis.

14 illus, 1 table, 15 ref

019221   Bhatnagar S D;Sehgal V K (NO, Examiner of Patent and Des, New Delhi) : Durability of concrete exposed to oil at ambient temperature. J Struct Engng 2005, 32(5), 389-95.

Concrete tanks are used for storage of oil on land as well as offshore. The effects of oil on properties of concrete, that is, compressive strength, permeability and oil absorption were studied. The parameters adopted for exposure of concrete specimens were Diesel oil, Mobil oil and Portable water. Results show that the moisture conditions of specimens (at the time of exposure to oil) affect the properties of concrete. The addition of pozzolanic material (fly ash/silica fume) in the cocrete increases its resistance under different exposure conditions. This may be related to change in the pore structure resulting from pozzolanic activity, as well as the effect of packing of pozzolanic material in the microstructure.

12 tables, 8 ref