Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

Achieving outstanding quality with minimum wastage has been an ever-standing thumb rule in manufacturing industry, for which many statistical approaches are continuously examined. This work intends to study the influence of input variables over the output parameters such as surface roughness, cutting force, and temperature on turned sample of aluminum. Four different values for each input variables such as 510–900 rpm (Spindle speed), 0.135–0.28 mm/rev (Feed rate), 0.2–1.7 mm (Depth of cut) are chosen for the present experimental investigation. Artificial intelligence is implemented in the present work and a predictive neural network model is developed using the experimental results obtained from the full factorial study. A model of 3-5-3-1 configuration is created and trained with the experimental data, which is found to have a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 5.24% and mean squared error (MSE) as 0.035, for the test data. Also, the developed model is compared to a multiple regression model and found to be more accurate in predicting the surface roughness of the turned sample. Moreover, the surface roughness is found to be predominantly influenced by feed rate followed by depth of cut and cutting speed. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

World University root node

Mechanical

School of Mechanical Engineering

Chennai Campus

Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering

Predictive Modeling of Surface Roughness for Turning of Al-6061 Using Artificial Neural Network Model

By the rise in population, the usage of non-renewable fuels is increasing. It led to the depletion of fossil fuels and other environmental issues. Reducing the usage of fossil fuel, enhancing performance and reducing emissions are the key areas in this research. In this experiment, a conventional single cylinder CI engine is used in dual fuel mode. In dual fuel mode, biogas is used as primary fuel and biodiesel (Palm oil) with various butanol blending ratios (10%, 20% and 30%) is used as pilot fuel. Various properties like flash and fire point, cloud and pour point, viscosity, density, calorific values are measured. Biogas flow rate and applied load are varied for each blending ratio. The effects of load, butanol blending ratio and biogas flow rate on BTE, BSFC, HC, CO and NOx emissions are analyzed and compared with diesel-only mode. Biodiesel with 30% butanol blend in dual fuel mode shows better brake thermal efficiency at 12 lpm flow rates. All test cases prove 12 lpm is better than 16 lpm biogas flow rates. Increase in biogas flow rate reduces NOx emissions. However, it increases HC and CO emissions. And this investigation proposes to intervene in the dual fuel biogas-biodiesel engine at 12 lpm biogas rate of flow. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Fulltext

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science

Effects of butanol blending ratio in biogas-biodiesel dual fuel engine

Electricity has been paid much attention towards its entry in all sectors of human life, ever long since its revolutionary invention. Networking the disconnected hamlets with reliable electricity is still found to be challenging in many countries, due to demographic conditions, where electricity remains elusive. Solar energy, a form of renewable energy that has been proved to be a viable alternative to fossil fuels could bea potential solution for regions with poor distribution of power. The present work aims t augmenting the solar energy harvesting in a PV module with a phase change material. A portable PV module is fabricated based on an innovative design including passive cooling with paraffin wax and arrangements for enhanced solar irradiation. The new design is tested for its performance at different temperatures and it is found that the module with PCM has shown 3% of increase in voltage generation over the conventional one. Also, paraffin wax is found to maintain the module temperature at 5% lesser than the normal one on an average. Five different angles of orientation of the mirrors say, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° &amp; 90° with module axis are tested and it is observed that 60° is optimum in harvesting the voltage. The results revealed that the new design is more efficient and viable for its usage. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Effect of Phase Change Material and orientation angles on the efficiency of hexagonal solar Photo-voltaic module

Cooling tower is a type of heat exchanger used to dissipate the unwanted heat from a medium into the atmosphere. A well-designed cooling tower provides prolong contact time for water with air and breaks down the water to have large surface area to promote the heat transfer rate. In the present work, an induced draft cooling tower is fabricated and used with a stationary IC Engine to minimize the overall usage of water. The performance of the tower with two different bed materials (Jute carpet &amp; Polystyrene balls) with and without wire mesh at three different water flow rates viz., 12, 18 and 30 lpm are studied. The cooling tower parameters such as range, approach, efficiency, effectiveness, heat loss, windage losses, and evaporative losses are calculated from the experimental data. At higher flow rates, jute carpets with wire mesh provided optimal results for the parameters while at low flow rates polystyrene balls are found to provide better results. The experimental results showed that the efficiency of the cooling tower increased by 67% as the flow rate increased from 12 lpm to 30 lpm with jute carpet and wire mesh, whereas the efficiency decreases as the flow rate increases with polystyrene as the bed material. Also, the similar trend is observed for the effectiveness of cooling tower. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

An Efficient Cooling Tower for a Stationary Engine

The continuous and increasing in volume of fossil fuels utilization leads to an alarming increase in green-house gases emissions. Consequentially, the release of toxic agents may cause detrimental health issues and aggravate global warming effects. Biofuels, due to its reduced emission effects, are found to be a potential alternate to fossil fuels, especially for their usage in internal combustion engines under certain loading conditions. The present research work aims at investigating the effects of butanol blending ratio at different biogas flow rates on the performance and emission characteristics of a single-cylinder CI (Compression ignition) engine under Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) mode. Flow rates of biogas taken in the present study are 12 lpm and 16 lpm whereas the butanol is blended in biodiesel-DEE (Diethyl-ether) mixture at 10, 20 &amp; 30% concentration by volume. The engine parameters analysed in the present work are brake thermal efficiency, Brake Specific Energy Consumption (BSEC), Hydrocarbons (HC), Carbon monoxide (CO), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Smoke emissions. Results showed that the butanol addition in the fuel reduced the NOx emissions considerably at various loads between 0.1 N-m to 15 N-m. Further increase in load resulted in knocking conditions in the engine due to multipoint ignition. Based on the experiments, it is witnessed that 30% of butanol blend in biodiesel-DEE mixture high efficiency and low smoke emissions compared to all other blends. Simultaneous reduction of NOx and smoke emissions is observed in HCCI mode. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Investigations on biogas fuelled Homogeneous Charged Compression Ignition engine with di ethyl ether-Biodiesel-Butanol blend as Pilot fuel

The present research work investigates the effect of CuO nanoparticles on the nucleate boiling heat transfer characteristics of Isobutane (R600a) refrigerant. All the pool boiling experiments are carried with both pure and nano-refrigerants of 0.01, 0.025, 0.05 and 0.1 percentage by volume. The heat flux is varied from 2 kW.m -2 to 20 kW.m -2 at a regular interval of 2 kW.m -2 . The heat transfer coefficient values for the pool boiling condition of R600a refrigerant are calculated experimentally, which are less deviating from the established theoretical correlations. The added CuO nanoparticles significantly influenced the nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient of R600a refrigerant at higher heat flux values. The experiment results reveal that the thermophoretic mobility of nanoparticles play a major role in nanofluids heat transport. In the present work, CuO nanoparticles addition in R600a is optimized and is justified based on gravity and agglomeration effect. © 2019, The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology

Nucleate pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of R600a with CuO nanoparticles

The Soret-effect or thermo-diffusion in liquids has been a subject of long-standing consideration for research. Numerical modelling of thermophoresis in water-alumina nanofluid subjected to sub-cooled pool boiling conditions is attempted in this paper. Pool boiling experiments are conducted using water-alumina nanofluid for different heater input conditions (50 °C–90 °C). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS Fluent is used further to analyse thermophoresis in water-alumina nanofluid. 2-D steady pressure-based implicit solver with Gauss-Seidel iterative procedure is used to discretize and numerically solve the mathematical model. Pressure-correction in the numerical procedure is done using SIMPLE (Semi-implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equation) technique. Flow boiling models for micro-sized particles are revised to outfit pool boiling conditions of nanofluid. Results of temperature from the numerical model were found to have a worthy-match with measured temperature values of the experiments. Uncertainty analysis is carried out for the random variation of temperature measurements in experiments. Thermophoretic parameters, Peclet numbers (rotational/translational) and time-scale equations for diffusion are used to analyse minute particle motion due to advection/diffusion nano-scale heat transfer. Results of thermophoretic velocity reveal a diminishing effect of particle motion near heater surface with amplified heater inputs. Results of Peclet numbers (translational/rotational) reveal the significant role of very small nano particle motion on heat diffusion in nanofluids. Combined results of Peclet number and time-scale equations reveal the strengths of advection and diffusion mechanisms in the nano-scale heat transfer process. © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS

VIT Unitversity

International Journal of Thermal Sciences

Numerical modelling of thermophoresis in water-alumina nanofluid under pool boiling conditions

Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management

Vellore Campus

International Journal of Civil Engineering

Bio-Enzymatic Stabilization of a Soil Having Poor Engineering Properties

Journal of Central South University

Plasticity, strength, permeability and compressibility characteristics of black cotton soil stabilized with precipitated silica

The coefficient of performance of a refrigeration system can be improved if a reduction in the work of compression can be achieved by a suitable technique, for a specified heat removal rate. The present study investigates the effect of dispersing a low concentration of TiO 2 nanoparticles in the mineral oil based lubricant, on its viscosity and lubrication characteristics, as well as on the overall performance of a Vapor Compression Refrigeration System using R12 (Dichlorodifluoromethane) as the working fluid. An enhancement in the COP of the refrigeration system has been observed and the existence of an optimum volume fraction noticed, with low concentrations of nanoparticles suspended in the mineral oil. The physics involved in the interaction of nanoparticles with the base fluid has been further elucidated by estimating the Optical Roughness Index using a Speckle Interferometer, by performing measurements on the pin surface following tests with a Pin-on-Disk tester. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

International Journal of Refrigeration

Application of TiO 2 nanoparticles as a lubricant-additive for vapor compression refrigeration systems - An experimental investigation

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that can occur in any part of the body. The only diagnostic tool available for psoriasis is skin tissue biopsy. Higher blood flow rate in the infected regions is a clinical symptom of this disease. When light is incident on the skin, the backscattered light carries information of the chromophore it interacts. Hence, the reflected light is processed to calculate the blood flow rate. This paper presents experimental results of blow flow rates measured on psoriatic patients at various stages of the disease. It is also found that skin blood flow can be used to distinguish psoriasis from a form of benign skin cancer.