019574   Ramana C V V;Malakondaiah K (Instrumentation Dep, Sri Krisnadevaraya Univ, Anantapur-515 055, Email: ramana6@gmail.com ) : Design and development of embedded based system for the measurement of dielectric constant in solids. Int J Mater Sci 2009, 4(1), 73-80.

An embedded based system for the measurement of dielectric constant in solids has been designed & developed. It is based on the technique that utilizes frequency measurement for determination of capacitance using the microcontroller as a tool. The change in frequency of XR-2206 function generator, when the solid forms the dielectric medium of the dielectric cell, is measured with a microcontroller. Atmel's AT89C51 Microcontroller is used in the present study. Further, an LCD module is interfaced with the microcontroller in 4-bit mode, which reduces the hardware complexity. The results of the instrument displayed on LCD and Personal Computer simultaneously. Software is developed in C using Ride's C-cross compiler. The instrument system covers a wide range of dielectric constant for various solids. The system is quite successful in the measurement of dielectric constant in liquids with an accuracy of ± 0.2%. The paper deals with the hardware and software details.

3 illus, 1 table, 10 ref

019573   Rama Krishna S;Pathipaka G;Sivashanmugam P (Chemical Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, Email: psiva@nitt.edu) : Heat transfer augmentation in a circular tube fitted with straight half twist left-right inserts in laminar flow. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(2), 437-41.

Experimental investigation of heat transfer characteristics of circular tube fitted with straight half left-right inserts in laminar flow has been reported. The heat transfer rate increases with decreasing spacer distance with the maximum in spacer distance of 2 inches.

3 illus, 6 ref

019572   Ram Kumar R;Raguraman C M;Ragupathy A (Mechanical Engineering Dep, Faculty of Engineerng and Technology, Annamalai Univ, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, Email: rrramkumar_hai@yahoo.com) : Eco-friendly cooling tower. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(2), 515-22.

Surface water is used in cooling tower in many process industries like sugar, petrochemical, chemical and power generation. The discharge from cooling tower has considerable impact on the environment by way of emission of sensible heat to the atmosphere, discharge of the cyclic concentrated blow down water with chemical and evaporation losses. These effects have an adverse impact on the quality of -he surface water and atmospheric air. A study was conducted in the cooling tower using second body water (E-II) condensate from sugar industries and D.M plant rinsing water as cooling water. The main objective was to improve the cooling tower performance and to minimize the cooling tower water blowdown with low environmental impact. The study include capital and operating cost estimates, technical feasibility, conservation of water and energy as well as reduced emission to the environment. The study indicated that second body condensate water is a fascinating and viable alternative for the cooling tower, resulting in a reduction of the make up water consumption and environmental impact.

6 illus, 2 tables, 7 ref

019571   Rajinder Singh;Kachhwaha S S (Mechanical Engineering Dep, Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi-110 042, Email: sskachhwaha@rediffmail.com) : Thermal hydraulic analysis of a plate heat exchanger. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(2), 121-4.

In the study, for prescribed pressure drop in a reference stream and heat transfer rate, size of plate heat exchanger is calculated iteratively. Martin's correlations for chevron-type PHEs are employed through curve fitting.

6 illus, 9 ref

019570   Rahim N A;Islam Z;Raihan S R S (Electrical Engineering Dep, Engineering Faculty, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Email: nasrudin@um.edu.my) : FPGA-based PWM control of hybrid single-phase active power filter for harmonic compensation. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(1), 55-61.

Presents implementation of sinusoidal pulse-width-modulation (PWM) for a single-phase hybrid power filter. A series active power filter and a shunt passive filter were combined to suppress harmonic current and isolate harmonic between source and load. For active filter control, PWM was developed in an ALTERA® FLEX 10K Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and modulation index was selected by calculating DC bus voltage of active filter through a digital Proportional-Integral- Derivative (PID) controller. System has been found capable of compensating load current and voltage harmonic within specification of EMC standard IEC 61000-3-2.

6 illus, 12 ref

019569   Ragit S S;Mohapatra S K;Kundu K (Mechanical Engineering Dep, Thapar University, Patiala-147 004, Email: satish_ragit@yahoo.com) : Performance and emission evaluation of a diesel engine fueled with methyl ester of neem oil and filtered neem oil. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(1), 62-6.

Neem oil methyl ester (NOME) was tested in 4-stroke single cylinder water cooled diesel engine. Brake thermal efficiency of NO100 has been found 63.11% higher than that of diesel at part load whereas it reduces 11.2% with diesel fuel at full load. As NOME is concerned, HC is reduced at all load condition, whereas smoke is also reduced at full load condition. NOx has reduced slightly at all load condition, and EGT showed increasing trend at full load condition. Other emissions (CO, CO₂ and O₂) do not contribute bad effect on engine. Thus, NOME can be a substitute for diesel fuel in diesel engine.

3 illus, 1 table, 11 ref

019568   Raghunathan C;Velan M;Velmurugan B;Ramanujam R A (Chemical Engineering Dep, A.C. College of Technology, Anna Univ, Chennai-600 025, Email: rar_envtech@yahoo.com) : Batch kinetics of anaerobic digestion of solid waste (Sinews) from gelatin industry. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(2), 456-63.

Anaerobic digestion offers a potential means for converting organic solid waste into fuel and thereby provides a supplemental and readily utilizable source of energy. Manufacturing of Gelatin from animal bones generates solid wastes in the form of semisolids, having fat and protein in the range of 52.7 ± 2.6 and 36 ± 3.2 percent respectively. The waste seemed to have good potential for generation of biogas. Biogas produced from these wastes by anaerobic digestion process would replace part of furnace oil used as fuel in the boiler to produce process steam. This would not only improve techno-economic viability of the gelatin production from wastes but also reduce the Green House Gas emission. In the investigation, biomethanation potential of Gelatin industry solid wastes particularly sinews has been assessed using batch reactor. The studies have been carried out at various Organic Loads and Retention to times, in order to determine the specific gas production with respect to volatile solids fed and to develop batch kinetics for anaerobic digestion of sinews.

2 illus, 2 tables, 10 ref

019567   Punitharani K;Murugan N;Sivagami S M (Mechanical Engineering Dep, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641 004, Email: punitharani@rediffmail.com) : Finite element analysis of residual stresses and distortion in hard faced gate valve. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(2), 129-34.

Studies establishing temperature distribution, distortion and residual stress field developed during plasma arc hard facing of Stellite 6 over low alloy steel (AISI 4140) gate valve by finite element analysis (FEA). In FEA, a three dimensional solid model was generated and simulated using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) code. After simulation, residual stresses were compared and validated by stress measured by X-Ray diffraction technique. Numerical results showed good agreement with experimental test.

5 illus, 3 tables, 15 ref

019566   Prasad V;Gahlot V K;Krishnamachar P (Civil Engineering Dep, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal-462 051, Email: gahlot_vk@rediffmail.com) : CFD approach for design optimization and validation foraxial flow hydraulic turbine. Indian J Engng Mater Sci 2009, 16(4), 229-36.

Conventional method to assess turbine performance is its model testing which becomes costly and time consuming for several design alternatives in design optimization. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become a cost effective tool for predicting detailed flow information in turbine space to enable the selection of best design. 3D real flow analysis in an experimentally tested axial flow turbine has been carried out and different flow parameters are computed at three operating regimes to find the best operating regime. The computed efficiencies are critically compared with experimental values and found to bear close comparison.

18 illus, 5 tables, 11 ref

019565   Prasad S N;Ghantasala S R;Basu D S (NO, RDCIS, Ranchi-834 002) : Manganese rich weather resistant steel with microstructure suitable for improved weldability. Steel India 2009, 31(2), 57-62.

Weather resistant steel is used as electrical transmission tower, mast, bridge and other outdoor structures. Additionally, plate and sheet of this grade have extensive applications in the manufacture of railway coach, wagon, marine container etc. The basic requirements for these applications, in addition to the weather resistance, are high yield strength, better weldability and low temperature toughness. All the strengthening factors except grain refinement adversely affect weldability. Strengthening due to grain refinement can result in decrease in weld crack susceptibility and improved toughness at heat affected zone (HAZ). The influence of thermomechanical treatment (TMT) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mn rich weather resistant steel has been studied. It has been found that yield strength (YS) considerably increases when rolled to 50% at 800 or 740 C as compared to rolling at 900 C, showing that even in the absence of microalloying it is amenable to TMT after an initial soaking at 1000 C. The ultimate tensile strength, hardness and tensile ductility are however, not significantly affected by the rolling temperature (900-740 C) or deformation (25-50 %). The ferrite grain size decreases with decreasing rolling temperature and increasing deformation in this Mn-rich steel. The ferrite has a polygonal morphology after rolling at 900 C. However, higher Mn content results in a mixed microstructure of polygonal ferrite, pearlite and non-polygonal ferrite with higher dislocation density, which is the characteristic of acicular ferrite, after rolling at 800 C. Such microstructure is desirable not only for a good combination of strength and ductility, but also for improved weldability.

8 illus, 1 table, 25 ref

019564   Prakash A;Lokhande R D;Singh K B (NO, Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Barwa Road, Dhanbad-826 015) : Surface ground deformation in Jharia and Raniganj coalfields over old mine workings. Indian J envir Prot 2009, 29(4), 289-93.

Subsidence can occur at any time over old mine workings, regardless how long it has been deserted due to the existence of voids and weak supporting pillars. Subsidence in old workings leads to severe damage to surface structures. This paper deals with the impacts and causes of subsidence and the preventive measures to be taken to avoid reoccurrence of ground movement depending upon field conditions. Surface ground conditions after triggered subsidence has also been dealt.

2 illus, 1 table, 20 ref

019563   Pradhan N;Patwari K;Paul A;Ray S K;Pal B R (NO, RDCIS, Ranchi-834 002) : Quality improvement in cast billet of special grades at Durgapur Steel Plant. Steel India 2009, 31(2), 39-44.

While casting special quality billets, Durgapur Steel Plant was facing acute problems with respect to internal quality in terms of off-corner crack, midway / reheating crack, rhomboidity and centre looseness. In addition, surface quality was poor in terms of severe lap and bleed especially in high carbon grades ( > 0.50 % C). Process parameters have been correlated with billet macro, and the reasons of quality problems identified. Based on this, improvement measures in terms of chemistry, casting parameters and augmentation of additional hardware have been implemented. This has resulted in improvement in acceptability of special quality billets from 50 to 90%.

9 illus, 16 ref

019562   Pradhan M (Mining Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Raipur-492 010) : Sleep time: its consequences on performance of bulk emulsion explosive. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(2), 125-8.

Study assesses degree of deterioration of bulk emulsion explosive due to sleeping by using velocity of detonation (VOD). A reduction in VOD (10.0%) was observed when explosive cartridges were left at ambient temperature for 15 days in laboratory environment. In-hole VOD also fell from 4920 m/s down to 4359 m/s (11.0%) in 15 days of sleeping in real blast environment.

1 illus, 2 tables, 5 ref

019561   Poongodi Vijayakumar T;Mohankumar J B; Srinivasan T (Food Science Dep, Periyar University, Salem-636 011, Email: poonvija@yahoo.co.in) : Quality evaluation of noodles from millet flour blend incorporated composite flour. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(1), 48-54.

Study presents influence of millet flour blend on physical, functional, nutritional, cooking and organoleptic characteristics of noodles prepared from composite flour of millet flour blend, whole wheat flour and soy flour. Fiber and amylose/ amylopectin ratio increased significantly (p<0.05) with increase in level of millet flour blend incorporation. Cooking time of developed noodles from composite flour (15-18 min) was significantly (p<0.01) higher than cooking time of branded noodles (9.3 min). Mean overall organoleptic score of developed noodle from composite flour was in the range of highly acceptable criteria (20-25). By all means, 20% level of millet flour blend incorporation was found to be acceptable. Mean glycemic index and load of developed noodle was significantly (p<0.01) lower than branded noodle.

7 tables, 5 ref

019560   Pohare J;Pandey K C;Mahalle D M (UC Energy Sources & Elec. Engg. Dep, Agric Engg College, Dr P.D. Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola-444 104) : Performance of IC engine on fully biogas as fuel. Green Fmg 2010, 1(1), 78-0.

Biogas is primarily composed of methane and carbon dioxide. The 65% methane content makes it a promising source of alternative fuel. Biogas converts waste and harmful bacteria into potential fuel sources and raw material for other use. The beauty of biogas is in fact that it is a natural process and works on basically any organic wastes. A5HP Kirloskar make IC engine was modified to run on 100% biogas as fuel. Biogas has been found to be a suitable fuel for 1C engines. The studies conducted to evaluate the engine performance and study the effect of power developed by the engine on 11.2:1 and 12.4:1 compression ratios.

6 illus, 1 table, 7 ref

019559   Peshwe A V;Kallurkar S P (Staff Development Cell, Govt Polytechic, Osmanpura, Aurangabad (Maharashtra)) : Multivariate statistics: towards improving efficiency of milk schemes in Marathwada region-study report. Indian J Dairy Sci 2009, 62(3), 229-35.

Milk processing parameters that contribute towards improving the efficiency in milk processing were identified by the literature study, field study and the expert's opinion. The derived fifty nine variables of the milk processing systems are confirmed (by univariate analysis of the collected data) as the milk processing parameters that contribute to improve the efficiency of Govt. milk schemes in Marathwada region. The data collected from the experience survey for the fifty nine parameters was analyzed by the data reduction technique i.e. factor analysis to derive the fifteen vital parameters (factors) that contribute improving the efficiency of Govt. milk processing plants. These fifteen factors were defined. The highest loading factor was selected as surrogate variable for regression analysis to compute the regression equation for ascertaining the interdependence of dependent and independent variables. Backwards regression analysis was carried out in order to determine the best regression estimate.

2 illus, 6 tables, 5 ref

019558   Pawar C B;Agarwal K R;Chaube A (Mechanical Engineering Dep, Shri G.S. Institute of Technology & Science, Indore, Email: c_bpawar@rediffmail.com) : Heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of compound turbulators in rectangular ducts of solar air heater. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(2), 464-71.

The demand of energy is increasing day by day because of increase in the population and increase in the living standards of the people. As the existing conventional sources of energy only is not sufficient enough to meet the growing demand of energy, it becomes mandatory to opt for the non-conventional sources of energy like solar, wind, bio-mass etc., to fulfil the growing demand of the energy. Amongst the various alternative energy sources, solar energy is a clean renewable resource of energy with zero emission, and has got tremendous potential which can be harnessed using a variety of devices e.g. solar cooker, solar water heater, solar photovoltaic cell and solar air heating systems etc. Solar air heating systems are used for drying foods and other agricultural crops, seasoning of wood and in air-conditioning systems. The performance of solar air heater being low due to the low value of convective heat transfer coefficient between the flowing air and the absorber plate. The convective heat transfer can be increased by increasing the level of turbulence by breaking the laminar viscous sub layer. The use of artificial roughness or turbulators on heated surface is one of the passive techniques which is used mostly for enhancing the heat transfer. In the present work artificial roughness in the form of integral wedge shaped rib with and without groove has been employed to enhance the heat transfer. The Nusselt number and friction factor for the same was determined experimentally and the corresponding values were compared with the smooth plate for Reynolds number in the range of 3000-20000. The wedge roughened surface enhances the Nusselt number and the friction 1.5-2.3 times and 2-2.5 times respectively in comparison to the smooth plate in the range of parameters investigated. The investigations on wedge shaped transverse compound turbulator (rib - groove) shows better enhancement of heat transfer compared to only rib turbulators.

7 illus, 13 ref

019557   Pavithra M;Nambi I M (EWRE Div, Civil Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Email: pavithram@iitm.ac.in) : Dissolution of NAPL in a heterogeneous saturated aquifer. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(2), 380-7.

Effective remediation of the NAPL contaminated sites entails a detailed understanding of the entrapment and subsequent dissolution of the NAPL. Early efforts on the dissolution of the NAPL in heterogeneous system have identified that initial NAPL saturation and the grain size of the sand have significant impact on effluent concentration. The present study focuses on analyzing the system sensitivity to the variation of the NAPL configuration, variation of the aqueous flow rate and also the dynamic behavior of the system at a different scale of observation. O-Toluidine, a chlorinated solvent with density 1.004 g/ml and solubility of 16500 mg/L was used as the NAPL for Dissolution studies. The result profess that theory of equilibrium is independent of scale of observation. Another critical finding is that aqueous flow rate and rate limited behavior are directly proportional. For every one fold increase in aqueous flow rate, the time of occurrence of rate limited behavior was decreased by almost two folds. This finding is crucial in estimating the optimal aqueous flow rate that can be applied in any flushing technique.

5 illus, 4 ref

019556   Paul A K;Santra B K;Neogi N (R&D Centre for Iron and Steel, SAIL, Ranchi-834 002) : Adjustable speed drives for rolling mill applications. Steel India 2008, 30(2), 46-50.

Discusses the dynamic response for two critical applications of variable speed drives of high capacity; one in Wire rod mill and other in Skelp mill, for the purpose of looper control during steel rolling process. The goal of the work was to find out an optimum control solution with the existing rolling stand motors and drives to suit the dimensional accuracy requirement of the finished products. Inter-stand tension plays a dominant role in product dimension. Inter-stand tension is avoided by introducing suitable loops in between rolling stands. The wire rod mill application describes how loop depth is controlled by variable speed drive using conventional PI controller superimposed with feed forward action. The Skelp mill application describes the finishing stand DC motors fed by common armature voltage generated by a converter and speed regulation is done by field control. The speed control response for both the configurations has been compared and modifications were carried out to improve the response. The schemes with improved looper control response with existing drives have been implemented in the Wire Rod Mill of Bhilai Steel Plant, and in the Skelp Mill of Durgapur Steel Plant. Implementation of this scheme has resulted in significant improvement in the dimensional accuracy of finished products and reduction in cobble and mill delays.

5 illus, 3 tables, 6 ref

019555   Paul A K;Narasimha Rao K;Venkata Ramana K; Sarkar D;Santra B K (R&D Centre for Iron and Steel, SAIL, Ranchi-834 002) : Automation of entry guide for hot strip mill. Steel India 2009, 31(2), 1-5.

Proper positioning of entry guide before finishing stands in a hot rolling mill are very important to improve product quality. Measuring the entry guide gap and controlling the gap as per the width of the strip at finishing stands, are necessary to improve the performance of a Hot Strip Mill. An automation system has been designed, developed and implemented for crop shear and finishing stands using Incremental encoder, and processing the signal in a programmable controller. Suitable interface has been developed to feed the coil width manually or through network. The scheme has been implemented in Hot Strip Mill of Rourkela Steel Plant. Implementation of this scheme has resulted in 72% reduction in cobble related to malfunctioning of entry guide system, and 70% reduction in mill delay.

4 illus, 1 table 2 ref

019554   Patil A A;Singhai J (Electroncis and Telecommunication Dep, COE, Malegaon, Pune, Maharashtra, Email: pani121@gmail.com) : Image denoising using curvelet transform: an approach for edge preservation. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(1), 34-8.

Suggests a soft thresholding multiresolution technique based on local variance estimation for image denoising. This adaptive thresholding with local variance estimation effectively reduce image noise and preserves edges. In proposed algorithm, 2D fast discrete curvelet transform (2D FDCT) out performed wavelet based image denoising. PSNR using 2D FDCT is approximately doubled and it also preserves features at boundary of an image.

3 illus, 1 table, 10 ref

019553   Palanivelraja S;Chockalingam M P (Civil Engineering Dep, Annamalai Univ, Annamalainagar-608 002) : Performance evaluation of USEPA ISCST3 model in the ambient environ of Neyveli air basin. Indian J envir Prot 2009, 29(4), 316-22.

The study involves the performance evaluation of the USEPA ISCST3 model for prediction of short-term SO₂ concentrations in the ambient environment of NLC complex. The reliability of the ISCST3 dispersion model has been verified by using the short term air quality and micro meteorological data from the study of (Chockalingam, 1988) pertaining to NLC environ. The model ISCST3 is applied on two different approaches as ISC modeling option-1 and 2. The both options of ISCST3 model has been run successfully for predicting SO₂ concentrations. These simulations are carried out for 3-sets of 8-houly meteorological data, which include various combinations of stability and wind speed. The cummulative frequency distributions of observed and predicted SO₂ concentrations for both modeling options and all the sampling stations have been drawn and compared. It is understood from the result that ISCST3 model over predicted the 8 hr average SO₂ concentrations. It is concluded that ISCST3 predicted 8 hr concentrations is an average of 8-10 min concentrations not 8 1 hr concentrations.

1 illus, 3 tables, 10 ref

019552   Omkar S N;Senthilnath J;Suresh S (Aerospace Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560 012, Email: omkar@aero.iisc.ernet.in) : Mathematical model and rule extraction for tool wear monitoring problem using nature inspired techniques. Indian J Engng Mater Sci 2009, 16(4), 205-10.

Pattern classification problem in tool wear monitoring is solved using nature inspired techniques such as Genetic Programming (GP) and Ant-Miner (AM). The main advantage of GP and AM is their ability to learn the underlying data relationships and express them in the form of mathematical equation or simple rules. The extraction of knowledge from the training data set using GP and AM are in the form of Genetic Programming Classifier Expression (GPCE) and rules respectively. The GPCE and AM extracted rules are then applied to set of data in the testing/validation set to obtain the classification accuracy. A major attraction in GP evolved GPCE and AM based classification is the possibility of obtaining an expert system like rules that can be directly applied subsequently by the user in his/her application. The performance of the data classification using GP and AM is as good as the classification accuracy obtained in the earlier study (i.e. using ANN approach).

5 tables, 17 ref

019551   Ojha S K;Das B K;Arora A (NO, RDCIS, Ranchi-834 002) : Challenges of operating large blast furnace. Steel India 2009, 31(2), 33-8.

Steel plants in India under modernisation are going for large blast furnaces to increase plant capacity. SAIL, Tata Steel, JSW and other steel producing companies have started installing blast furnaces of volume more than 4000 m^{3. Stable, operation of such furnaces with high level of performance will be a real challenge to the operators. Deals about challenges for operating large blast furnaces in Indian conditions.}

3 illus, 3 tables, 8 ref

019550   Nasri M;Modares R;Dastorani M T (NO, Islamic Azad Univ, Ardestan Branch, Ardestan, Iran, Email: ps_sepahan@yahoo.com) : Rainfall-runoff relationship of Zayandehrud dam basin by multi layer perceptron neural network. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 2(4), 790-5.

Rainfall-runoff relationship is one of the most important and complex hydrological processes whose perception is very important in hydrology and water resources. A plenty of physical and statistical models have been developed for this that apply some parameters due to this relationship. The application of artificial neural network as a black box model is one of the methods to evaluate rainfall-runoff relationship. In this study, rainfall-runoff relationship of Plasjan Basin, upstream Zayandehrud River, is evaluated using multilayer perceptron network. Due to high variation of observed series, 3 daily rainfall series of regional stations and daily discharge of Plasjan station were first normalized and according to autocorrelation and cross correlation of rainfall-runoff data, 6 variables were selected for input of the network and a 4-hidden-layer network was found to be more valid comparing with other networks.

1 table, 7 ref

019549   Nandi P;Halder D;Giri P K;Pradhan R K; Banerjee K (R&D Centre for Iron and Steel, SAIL, Ranchi-834 002) : Improving performance of functional refractory components for secondary steel ladle. Steel India 2008, 30(2), 51-7.

Most critical components of Functional Refractories (FR) used in steel ladle are top well block and inner nozzle. Ladles need to be cooled down for changing these components. This has detrimental effect on ladle lining due to thermal shock and its availability. Good erosion resistance, i.e. high hot strength, against flowing liquid steel, and good corrosion resistance against liquid slag are two essential requirements of FR. Presently, the components are mostly made from high alumina castable containing either large amount of cement or no cement, but do not contain any spinel to resist slag attack. Describes the efforts made to improve the performance of well block and inner nozzle under the most severe operating conditions of alloy steelmaking. Role of both pre-formed spinel and free magnesia for in-situ spinel formation during service have been highlighted.

2 illus, 5 tables, 9 ref

019548   Nair U R;Asthana S N;Subhananda Rao A;Gandhe B R (NO, High Energy Materials Research Lab, Pune-411 021) : Advances in high energy materials. Def Sci J 2010, 60(2), 137-51.

Research and development efforts for realizing higher performance levels of high energy materials (HEMs) are continued unabated all over the globe. Of late, it is becoming increasingly necessary to ensure that such materials are also eco-friendly. This has provided thrust to research in the area of force multiplying HEMs and compounds free from pollution causing components. Enhancement of the performance necessitates introduction of strained structure or increase in oxygen balance to achieve near stoichiometry. The search for environment friendly molecules is focused on chlorine free propellant compositions and lead free primary explosives. Energetic polymers offer added advantage of partitioning of energy and thus not necessitating the concentration of only solid components (HEMs and metal fuels) in the formulations, to achieve higher performance, thereby leading to improvement in energetics without adversely affecting the processability and mechanical properties. During recent times, research in the area of insensitive explosives has received impetus particularly with the signature of STANAG. Gives a review of the all-round advances in the areas of HEMs encompassing oxidizers, high-energy dense materials, insensitive high-energy materials, polymers and plasticizers. Selected formulations based on these materials are also included.

^iia20 tables, 94 ref

019547   Naik S K;Mahapatara A;Dash D C;Nanda S (PG Dep of Chemistry, Sambalpur Univ, Orissa, Email: amitabhdr@gmail.com) : Monitoring of air quality status in and around OPGC thermal power plant, Belpahar, Orissa (India). J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(1), 143-55.

Study for assessment of air quality was carried out in and around the Orissa power Generation Corporation's thermal power plant (OPGC) in Orissa, India. The 24 hrs average concentrations of suspended particulate matter (SPM), respirable particulate matter (RPM), sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) were determined at regular intervals throughout three seasons for one year at ten monitoring stations in residential areas and industrial areas. The 24 hrs average RPM and SPM concentrations were 19-200 μg/m^{3 and 20-160 ug/m3 in industrial and residential areas respectively. During the study period, 24 hrs and annual average RPM and SPM concentrations exceeded the respective standards set in the Indian national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) protocol as well as USEPA, EU, WHO and World Bank standards at most of the residential and industrial areas. However, concentrations of SO₂ (24 hrs average: 12.0-27.8μg/m3 in industrial and 14.0-25.0 μg/m3 in residential area respectively) and NO_x (24 hrs. average: 21.1-66.4 μg/m3 in industrial area and 15.1-22.4 μg/m3 in residential area respectively) were well within the prescribed limit of the NAAQS and international standards in both residential and industrial areas. Highest concentrations of particulatc matter were observed during the winter season followed by summer, and post monsoon.}

12 illus, 2 tables, 30 ref

019546   Nagaraju A;Ramachandram S (NO, Kamala Institute of Technology and Science, Singapur, Huzurabad, Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh, Email: nagaraju_aitha@yahoo.com) : Reducing broadcast redundancy using equivalence sets in mobile Ad-hoc networks. Adv Wireless Mobile Commun 2008, 1(1-3), 69-78.

Proposes a technique to reduce broadcasting in the existing MANET routing algorithm such as AODV [1], DSR [2]. The existing routing algorithm AODV is sending route request packet to all the neighbor nodes when it needs to find destination. It will greatly reduce the performance of network and consumes much of the bandwidth; tries to reduce route request packets by constructing rough set using equivalence classes among the neighbors of a node, which is based on the characteristics among the neighbor nodes. This proposed protocol can be applied to most existing routing algorithms for MANET to improve the performance of the protocol.

11 illus, 2 tables, 13 ref

019545   Muthu Krishnan M;Guha B K (Pollution Control Lab, Chemical Engineering Department, Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi) : Challenges and possibilities of membranes technology in chrome plating effluent treatment. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 2(4), 710-716.

Separation of hexavalent chromium from synthetic effluent was investigated using nanofiltration membrane. Application of nanofiltration in chrome plating industry was discussed with its economic benefits on recovery of chromium and water from chrome plating effluent by cost analysis simulation using MATLAB. Limitation on membrane operating condition and challenges on higher recovery are presented in detailed for chrome plating operation with theoretical material and energy balance. The effect of transmembrane pressure and feed concentration found major influencing parameters on membrane capital and operating cost as well as chromium recovery. The net profit were observed at higher feed solute concentration and high permeate recovery was observed at high operating pressure.

6 illus, 1 tables, 7 ref

019544   Mustafi N N;Raine R R (Mechanical Engineering Dep, Rajshahi Univ of Engineering and Technology, Rajshahi 6204, Bangladesh, Email: nnmustafi@gmail.com) : Dual fueling-a sustainable way to reduce emissions from a diesel engine. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(2), 342-52.

Diesel engines dominate in the heavy-duty applications due to their reliability and higher efficiency. However, diesel engines emit significantly higher amount of harmful pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) and particulate matter (PM). It has been established that diesel PM has a significant contribution to air pollution. The present study shows that such harmful pollutants from diesel engine can be reduced significantly using dual dueling. Natural gas (NG) and simulated biogas are used in this study. Along with the gaseous emissions such as NO_x and unburned hydrocarbons, PM is measured using the traditional gravimetric method and also characterized by the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Results are compared between diesel and dual fueling while the engine operating conditions are kept the same.

5 illus, 1 table, 29 ref

019543   Murugaiyan V;Kanmani S (NO, Anna Univ, Centre for Environmental Studies, Chennai-600 025) : Environmental audit of a small scale electroplating industry. Indian J envir Prot 2009, 29(4), 304-11.

Environmental audit was conducted in a small scale electroplating industry located at Ambattur in Chennai, The unit is engaged in hard chrome plating on various automobile components, such as piston, rollers, shock absorber and wedges of various thicknesses (8 to 300 micron) and works in batch mode employing 25 workers in 2 shifts. The surface area coated was estimated as 1023 m^{2 month and the consumption of chemical was quantified as 266 g/m2 and water as 10.26 L/m2. The wastewater generated was 270 L/month and 5 kg/month of sludge was generated from the effluent treatment plant (ETP). 15 numbers of used polishing wheels and 8.5 kg of metallic powder were generated from pre-cleaning operation. Chromic acid emission at center of work area was 0.1 mg/m<6>3 (greater than the emission standard of 0.05 mg/m3). Waste minimization measures were adopted by implementing counter current rinsing resulting in 70% reduction in water consumption and by PVC coating on jigs resulting in 10% reduction in energy. consumption. Based on the results of audit, significant aspects were found to be the chromic acid emission, water consumption, wastewater generation, and activities in ETP and the impacts were air pollution, water pollution and health hazard. Operational control procedures and environmental management plan with objective and target were developed as per the requirement of ISO 14001 EMS to reduce the impacts.}

2 illus, 6 tables, 9 ref

019542   Mohan D;Bhamawat P M K (Civil Engineering Dep, Institute of Technology BHU, Varanasi, Email: devmohan9@gmail.com) : E-waste management-global scenerio. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 2(4), 817-23.

'E-waste', also called Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), means all ctrical and electronic products, which are reached the end of their 'useful life' or have become obsolete. Because of improper handling of E-waste, the hazards posed by this type of waste have reached an alarming state at international level. Some components or part(s) of certain e-wastes can be reused, refurbished, or recycled in an environmentally acceptable manner to minimize their adverse environmental impacts. This paper highlights the hazards caused due to improper handling of E-wastes and also describes about some appropriate measures to be adopted for its management and safe disposal. It also discusses briefly about various options, which can be implemented using 4-R (reduce, reuse, recover and recycle) approach. Some of these strategies, as described in this paper, may many times be quite different in developing and developed countries of the world.

^iia1 illus, 3 tables, 16 ref

019541   Misra A K;Mathur R;Rao Y V;Singh A P;Goel P (NO, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), New Delhi-110 025, Email: akmishra.crri@nic.in) : New technology of marble slurry waste utilisation in roads. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(1), 67-72.

Marble slurry dust (MSD, a waste of marble industry, finds bulk utilization potential in roads. This study indicates that besides embankment construction with this waste, 20-30% of soil can be replaced by MSD for sub-grade preparation. Technology has been validated by taking full scale trials in the field.

4 illus, 1 table, 17 ref

019540   Marik A K;Thakur S K;Prusty P;Khuntia N; Mishra P K (R&D Centre for Iron and Steel, SAIL, Ranchi-834 002) : Improved roll coolant application system for the plate mill of Rourkela Steel Plant. Steel India 2008, 30(2), 27-32.

In a Plate Mill, the quality of the rolled products and the mill productivity are influenced by the efficiency of roll cooling to a considerable extent. The roll coolant application system installed at the Plate Mill of Rourkela Steel Plant was found to be poorly designed in several respects. Therefore, a more efficient roll coolant application system was designed and commissioned. It describes the design modifications made and the results obtained.

3 illus, 5 ref

019539   Mandal C;Prasad R R;Verma R S;Mukhejee A K; Anand D (R&D Center for Iron and Steel, SAIL, Ranchi-834 002) : Condition based technique to detect rotor faults in induction motors. Steel India 2008, 30(2), 38-42.

Preventive maintenance of induction motors involves monitoring of their operation for detection of abnormal electrical and mechanical conditions that indicate or may lead to failure of the motor. For this purpose, a new technique has been proposed that involves capturing of motor current signatures to monitor motor condition using a sensor and data logger with high resolution. These data are analyzed to detect the motor fault. The characteristics of broken rotor bar in measured spectral data are described. Experimental Pesults shouxthat this technique can be used effectively to detect the rotor bar problems. The technique can further be extended to detect some mechanical problems like bearing, gear and belt faults.

3 illus, 6 ref

019538   Maksimovic R;Stankovski S;Ostojic G;Petrovic S;Ratkovic Z (Industrial Engineering and Management Dep, Faculty of Technical Scienc, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, Email: stevan@uns.ac.rs) : Complexity and flexibility of production structures. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(2), 101-5.

Presents procedure developments for design of effective production structures of an enterprise. It considers possibilities of making production structures more manageable by means of lowering degree of complexity and enabling production structures to adapt flexibility. Case study was conducted in the company with machine tools production structures.

5 illus, 2 tables, 9 ref

019537   Maini A K (NO, Laser Science and Technology Centre, Metcalfe Hosue, Delhi-110 054, Email: director@lastec.drdo.in) : Battlefield lasers and opto-electronics systems. Def Sci J 2010, 60(2), 189-96.

During the last four decades or so, there has been an explosive growth in commercial, industrial, medical, scientific, technological, and above all, military usage of laser devices and systems. In fact, lasers have influenced every conceivable area of application during this period. While the expansion of non-military application spectrum of lasers is primarily driven by emergence of a large number of laser wavelengths followed by ever increasing power levels and reducing price tags at which those wavelengths could be generated, the military applications of lasers and related electro-optic devices have grown mainly because of technological maturity of the lasers that were born in the late 1960's and the early 1970's. Lasers have been used in various military applications since the early days of development that followed the invention of this magical device. There has been large scale proliferation of lasers and opto-electronic devices and systems for applications like range finding, target designation, target acquisition and tracking, precision guided munitions, etc. during 1970's and 1980's. These devices continue to improve in performance and find increased acceptance and usage in the contemporary battlefield scenario. Technological advances in optics, opto-electronics, and electronics, leading to more rugged, reliable, compact and efficient laser devices are largely responsible for making these indispensable in modern warfare. Past one decade or so has seen emergence of some new potential areas of usage. Some of these areas include rapid growth in the usage of lasers and opto-electronics devices and systems for electrooptic countermeasure (EOCM) applications, test and evaluation systems that can perform online functionality checks on military opto-electronics systems and also their interoperability. An overview of the current and emerging military applications of lasers and opto-electronics systems has been given with an outline on the likely trends leading to performance enhancement of the existing systems and emergence of new application areas. Also, a brief on the developmental activity in the field of laser and opto-electronics devices and systems at Laser Science and Technology Centre (LASTEC), Delhi has been given.

4 illus, 1 table, 8 ref

019536   Mahajan C P;Motghare V C (NO, Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pune-411 021, Email: cpmlata@yahoo.com) : Smart munitions. Def Sci J 2010, 60(2), 159-63.

In modern land warfare, munitions are considered as highly effective means of the defence against an invading force, especially armoured fighting vehicles. In recent decades, new technologies have transformed the dumb land munitions, into sophisticated smart munitions that can be used for offensive purposes. The evolution in the munitions technology was marked by the introduction of sensored smart munitions. Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) has achieved a technological breakthrough by developing world class sensor-based influence land munitions Adrushy MK-I and subsequently Adrushy MK-II. Successful development of these smart influence munitions has made India proud and at par with the world market.

^iia10 illus, 8 ref

019535   Lin G T R;Shen Y C (NO, Institute of Technology Management, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, Email: gtrl@faculty.nctw.edu.tw) : Collaborative model for technology evaluation and decision-making. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(2), 94-100.

Study suggests a hybrid approach integrating fuzzy Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to construct a technology evaluation and decision-making model for emerging technology of organic light emitting diode (OLED). OLED display industry of Taiwan has occupied third position in global market since 2005. Strategic and managerial suggestions were drawn for related policy makers.

1 illus, 4 tables, 23 ref

019534   Latha P;Ramachandran R (NO, Sathyabama Univ, Channa, Email: kr_lat@yahoo.com) : Multi objective fenetic approach of QoS based multicast routing for mobile ad hoc networks. Icfai univ J Inf Technol 2009, 5(4), 21-35.

Messages in Multicast Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (MAODV) routing protocol are transmitted by flooding which causes traffic overhead. Further mobility breaks those paths that are established by the routing protocol and disrupts the communication, executing an increased rate of link failure. The multicast tree is also not repaired until link breakage occurs. In addition to this, the protocols relying on the source of information (i.e., location information from Global Positioning System (GPS) is unavailable in areas such as tunnels and undergrounds) will fail to operate correctly if this information is not available. Modified MAODV (M-MAODV) is implemented on MAODV which uses only the selected nodes in the mobile ad hoc network (MANET) based on Heading Direction Angle (HDA) (self-content information) to broadcast the messages. The way the nodes are selected exploits the mobility and a long-lived route is also established to a destination. The work is further extended by applying multi-objective Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize the path established by M-MAODV based on Quality of Service (QoS) constraints. Simulation results of Genetic-MAODV (G-MAODV) show that the performance has been further enhanced satisfying the QoS issues in addition to the establishment of long-lived route.

9 illus, 2 ref

019533   Lain S;Quintero B;Lopez Y U (Energetics and Mechanics Dep, Universidad Autonoma de Occidente, Cali, Colombia, Email: slain@uao.edu.co) : Aeromechanical evaluation of large HAWT's blades. J scient ind Res 2010, 69(2), 142-5.

Presents aeromechanical evaluation of a blade (length, 50 m) of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT). Aerodynamic module combines three-dimensional non-linear lifting surface theory approach and a two-dimensional panel method for steady axisymmetric flow. It provides effective incident velocity and angle of attack at each blade section and 3D pressure distribution on blade as an input data for finite element analysis (FEA) package. FEA provides deformations, strains and stress distributions along blade and material induced fatigue. Degradation linear accumulation model was used in fatigue study under one million cycles of loading. Calculated accumulated damage was found below critical value.

5 illus, 6 ref

019532   Kumara Gurubaran B;Senthilkumar T;Shanmugam K;Balasubramanian V (Automobile Technology Dep, Anna Univ, Tiruchirappalli, Email: guru17381@gmail.com) : Pitting corrosion behaviour of shielded metal ARC welded ferritic stainless steel. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 2(4), 766-72.

Ferritic Stainless Steels (FSS) have useful properties in the wrought condition, welding is known to reduce toughness, ductility, and corrosion resistance because of grain coarsening and formation of martensite. Applications of these alloys involve exposure to high temperatures, such as for quenching racks and annealing boxes, and also for tanks for agricultural sprays, transformer cases and automotive applications. Type 409 is one of the most widely used FSS. They are cheap alternative to austenitic stainless steels. The heat of welding leads to grain coarsening in the heat affected zone (HAZ) and in the weld metal of FSS because they solidify directly from the liquid to the fertile phase without any intermediate phase transformation. In this paper, the effect of weld metals on pitting corrosion behaviour of shielded metal arc welded ferritic stainless steel has been reported. The polarization studies of the weld samples have been carried out in non-deaerated 3.5% NaCl solution (of pH 1,7 and 11) using (Gill AC) potentiostat. Micro structural examinations have been carried out using a light optical microscope incorporated with an image analyzing software.

3 illus,2 tables,12 ref

019531   Kumar T;Gopal M;Venugopal S;Rajadurai A (School of Mechanical Engineering, SRM Univ, Chennai-603 203, Email: kumar_srm@yahoo.com) : Effect of nitriding time on the type AISI 316 in grade austenitic stainless steels. Int J Mater Sci 2009, 4(1), 1-8.

Austenitic stainless steels have been widely used in highly corrosive environments for power generation, chemical, fertilizer, marine, and food and petrochemical reactors. However, their low hardness and poor wear resistance impose strong limitations in cases. Nevertheless, the performance of these alloys can be improved further for both aqueous and high temperature applications by case hardening. In the present study, the effect of nitriding time on the properties like microhardness and corrosion resistance of AISI type 316LN grade austenitic stainless steel was investigated. The gas nitriding was carried out at a temperature of 823K for a period of 8 hrs. 9 hrs and 11 hrs respectively with a flow rate of 8 cum/hr. The resulting micro structural changes and intermetallic phases in surface and subsurface were studied with optical microscope, microhardness and XRD analysis. It has been found that the matrix element interacted with alloying elements and formed 'ξ' phase or V phase consisting of hard complex Fe-Cr nitrides. The thickness of the diffused layer varied with the nitriding time. A maximum surface hardness value of 1210VHN and case depths varying from 58 microns to 73 microns could be obtained. The reason for the increase in the microhardness could be attributed to the presence of the hard complex iron chromium nitrides in the diffused layer.

5 illus, 17 ref

019530   Kumar A;Bhagoria J L;Sarviya R M (Mechanical Enginering Dep, M.A.N.I.T., Bhopal, Email: arvind76in2002@gmail.com) : Sustainable development through efficient solar air heaters. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 2(4), 796-807.

Energy consumption is on increase and the fossil fuels cannot last for ever. Today, the development scale of any country is measured by few parameters among which per capita energy consumption holds the most significant rank. Extensive fossil fuel consumption by human beings has led to some undesirable phenomena such as atmospheric and environmental pollutions. Consequently, global warming, greenhouse affect, climate change ozone layer depletion and acid rain terminologies started to appear in the literature frequently1. There is an intimate connection between energy, the environment and sustainable development. A society seeking sustainable development ideally must utilize only eco-friendly resources. Increased energy efficiency is only partly hopeful in overcoming the concerns regarding the limitations imposed on sustainable development by environmental emissions and atmospheric pollution. Clearly, a strong relation exists between energy efficiency and environmental impact since, for the same service, or products, less resource utilization and pollution is normally associated with increased energy efficiency. Global warming is on rise and ozone layer is depleting at a very fast rate, bcological balance ot the nature is under tremendous threat. Hence the sustenance of energy production has to be gradually become dependent on inexhaustible and clean sources of energy. This is where renewable energy assumes considerable importance, The demand of clean energy is increasing. Among renewable energy sources, solar energy tops the list due to its abundance, and more evenly distribution in nature than any other renewable -anergy types such as wind, geothennal, hydro, wave and tidal energies. Solar radiation is an integral part of different renewable energy sources. Sun is the inexhaustible source of energy and continuous supplier of solar radiation which provides stability to earth and links each livings species to it. The present paper explores : (i) Discussion about the potential of solar energy for future uses as the major alternative among the renewable energy sources (ii) Applications ot solar energy in terms of low and high temperature collectors (iii) Efficiency improvement of flat plate collectors (solar air heaters) using artificial roughness is given with luture research directions (iv) Sustainable development through efficient solar air heaters.

11 illus, 2 tables, 20 ref

019529   Kujur M K;Ghosh N K;Garai S K;Sarkar A;Tiwari L (NO, RDCIS, SAIL, Ranchi-834 002) : Reactivity and calcination behaviour of dolomite as steelmaking flux. Steel India 2009, 31(2), 17-23.

Calcined dolomite is an important flux material in BOF to maintain saturation level of MgO in slag during operation, and for slag splashing to achieve higher lining life. Chemical purity, loss on ignition and reactivity are three important properties. Four different sources of dolomite have been evaluated with respect to the above properties in laboratory. Samples were calcined at different temperatures for a fixed duration and optimum temperatures determined for each source to achieve maximum reactivity. Probable reasons for differences in maximum reactivity for different sources have been explained based on XRD, DTA, TGA and chemical analysis. Calcination temperatures have been suitably adjusted in shaft kilns to maximise reactivity of dolomite.

5 illus, 4 tables, 5 ref

019528   Koteswara Rao S (NO, Naval Science and Technological Lab, Vizag, Email: koteswararao.s@nstl.drdo.in) : Maximum likelihood estimator for bearings-only passive target tracking in electronic surveillance measure and electronic warfare systems. Def Sci J 2010, 60(2), 197-203.

Maximum likelihood estimator is a suitable algorithm for passive target tracking applications. Nardone, Lindgren and Gong introduced this approach using batch processing. The batch processing is converted into sequential processing for real-time applications like passive target tracking using bearings-only measurements. Adaptively, the variance of each measurement is computed and is used along with the measurement in such a way that the effect of false bearings can be reduced. The transmissions made by radar on a target ship are assumed to be intercepted by an electronic warfare (EW) system of own ship. The generated bearings in intercept mode are processed through maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) to find out target motion parameters. Instead of assuming some arbitrary values, pseudo linear estimator outputs are used for the initialisation of MLE. The algorithm is tested in Monte-Carlo simulation and its results are presented for two typical scenarios.

4 illus, 1 table, 8 ref

019527   Khare M R;Bandhopadhyay A;Jain R;Rao H; Madhusudan (R&D Centre for Iron and Steel, SAIL, Ranchi-834 002) : System for aligning ladle with tundish in continuous casting shop. Steel India 2008, 30(2), 43-5.

Describes the design and development of a very simple, low cost system for proper alignment of ladle-shroud and tundish in a four strand bloom caster. The conventional devices such as shaft encoder and laser for measuring the rotation of turret were found to be unsuitable. To overcome these problems, a system has been developed using photosensors. It displays the final alignment of ladle shroud and tundish in pulpit. After installation of the system it has been found that there is an increase in the caster productivity and a significant reduction in erosion of the stopper. The cost of system is only Rs 5000/- (US $ 125).

4 illus, 4 ref

019526   Kaushik I;Singh S M (Civil Engineering Dep, Institute of Technology, B.H.U., Varanasi, Email: inderjeet.kaushik@gmail.com) : Seasonal arima model for forecasting of monthly rainfall and temperature. J Envir Res Dev 2008, 3(2), 506-14.

The prediction of temperature and rainfall on a seasonal time scales has been attempted by various research groups using different techniques. The prediction of these parameters on monthly and seasonal time scales is not only scientifically challenging but is also important for planning and devising agricultural strategies. This paper describes the Box-Jenkins time series seasonal ARIMA (Auto Regression Integrated Moving Average) approach for prediction of temperature and rainfall on monthly scales. The Box Jenkins technique is applied to predict temperature and rainfall of next five years by analyzing last twelve years data (1994-2006). Previous years data is used to formulate the seasonal ARIMA model and in determination of model parameters. The performance evaluations of the adopted models are carried out on the basis of correlation coefficient (R^{2) and root mean square error (RMSE). The study conducted at Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh (India). The results indicate that the seasonal ARIMA model provide reliable and satisfactory predictions for rainfall and temperature parameters on monthly scale.}

3 illus, 18 ref

019525   Karunakaran E;Ganesan V (Internal Comustion Engines Lab, Mechanical Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai-600 036, Email: vganesan@iitm.ac.in) : Mean flow field measurements in an axisymmetric conical diffuser with and without inlet flow distortion. Indian J Engng Mater Sci 2009, 16(4), 211-19.

Presents the details of the experimental investigation and measurements made in an axisymmetric 5° conical diffuser model. The flow through a diffuser is studied with and without the inlet flow distortion. A simple cylindrical bluff body placed at the inlet of the diffuser creates the inlet flow distortion. A 5 mm diameter five-hole pitot sphere of cobra type has been used along with electronic digital manometers for the measurements. The velocity at the near wall regions and wake regions are well captured with the five-hole probe. The measurements along the entire length of the model at different stations, allow the determination of axial mean velocity component and pressure field parameters, which provide comprehensive information to aid and understand such complex flows. Performance and flow characteristics along the centerline of diffuser are presented.

8 illus, 1 table, 23 ref