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

Mechanical

Selection of the optimum electrochemical machining (ECM) process parameters is extremely crucial as this machining process involves huge capital investment and operating cost. In this work, the harmony search (HS) algorithm is integrated with desirability function (DF) in such a way that new HS-DF optimiser is proposed to optimise the ECM process parameters. The influence of three predominant ECM process parameters i.e. inter-electrode gap (IEG), voltage (V) and electrolyte concentration (EC) on the performance measures of material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Ra) was considered. The optimised values of EC = 115 g/l, V = 13 V, and IEG = 0.11 mm resulted in MRR of 0.726 g/min and Ra of 1.53 μm for electrochemical machining of Monel 400 alloys. The optimised results are compared with those drawn from the past research and found better. The HS-DF optimiser proves its applicability and suitability for optimising process parameters of ECM process, which reduces considerable computational, experimental cost and time. Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

World University root node

School of Mechanical Engineering

Chennai Campus

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management

Multi-response optimisation of electrochemical machining process parameters by harmony search-desirability function optimiser

The use of composites is increasing with increasing demand for advanced materials with specific properties required for specific applications. Composite materials are being used in a lot of applications, based on, type of resin and other reinforcements. Generally, resins are reinforced with a wide range of natural and synthetic fibers in different ways such as short/long/woven. In this investigation, samples are fabricated using three fibers, three resins and three fiber lengths. Samples are prepared with fibers of 5% wt. ratio reinforced with resin/CSNL of 80:15% wt. ratio using response surface methodology (RSM) as the design of experiments. The optimum conditions were obtained from the previous phase of the authors’ work and surface roughness is found out for all samples. Surface roughness plots were drawn for different combinations of fibers, resins, and range of lengths. © 2020, Politechnica University of Bucharest. All rights reserved.

UPB Scientific Bulletin, Series D: Mechanical Engineering

Investigations on surface roughness of natural (Banana / coir / sisal) fiber reinforced hybrid polymer matrix composites

The evolution of sandwich structures based on biodegradable and recyclable materials has created an interest in the study of their static and dynamic characteristics. In this work, experimental and numerical investigations are carried out on the vibration characteristics of a sandwich beam made using polypropylene honeycomb as the core and a woven jute/epoxy laminated composite as the face sheet. The numerical investigation is performed using the commercial finite-element analysis software Ansys. The validation of the finite-element model is done by comparing the natural frequencies evaluated numerically with the natural frequencies obtained experimentally. Also, an optimisation study on the modal characteristics of the sandwich beam is carried out based on the Taguchi L9 array by considering various parameters - namely, core thickness, fibre orientation and the number of natural fabric layers. From the optimisation study, it is found that the best dynamic characteristics are obtained from the specimen with the following optimum parameters: core thickness of 10mm or smaller, number of layers between two and three and fibre angle orientation of around 20°. © 2020 ICE Publishing. All rights reserved.

Emerging Materials Research

Dynamic characteristics of a honeycomb sandwich beam made with jute/epoxy composite skin

Monel 400 alloys find its applications in aerospace and marine industries. It is tough to cut these alloys using conventional machine tools as the hardness is high and also these alloys work-harden during cutting. Travelling wire electrochemical machining (TWECM), can cut these alloys efficiently and improves material removal rate (MRR) and surface quality. In this investigation, an attempt was made to investigate the TWECM characteristics of Monel 400 alloys and model the equation for MRR with the three process parameters i.e. voltage (V), electrolyte concentration (EC) and travelling wire speed (TS). The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed for design and analysis of experiments. The contour plots were generated to understand the effect of machining parameters on MRR. Artificial neural networks (ANN) were implemented to predict the process parameters. The predicted values of MRR with regression equation and ANN are in close agreement with the experimental results. Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

An experimental investigation and modelling for travelling wire electrochemical machining of Monel 400 alloys

In the quest of new material development, polymer matrix composite plays prominent role. Instead of reinforcing synthetic material in the polymer composite, an attempt is made in this work to reinforce green/recyclable/reusable materials in the polymer composite. Composite specimens are made with epoxy as matrix and coir/CNT/fly ash as reinforcements. The influences of wt.% of coir/CNT/fly ash on fatigue behavior of composite are determined. Response Surface Methodology (RSM), a Design of Experiments (DOE) approach is followed in specimen preparation and testing. ANOVA is used to find the influences of different parameters such as wt.% of coir/ CNT/fly ash on fatigue behavior of composite. Optimized levels of parameters are also found out. © 2020 Budapest University of Technology and Economics. All rights reserved.

Fulltext

Periodica Polytechnica Mechanical Engineering

Determination of fatigue limit of coir/CNT/Fly ash reinforced epoxy polymer matrix composite

Microfluidics is one of the rapidly growing markets in the present era of miniaturization. Microchannels have wide applications in various fields such as biomedical, mechanical, electrical, and chemical sciences. Machining microfeatures with high aspect ratio in metals is difficult by mechanical and lithography-based processes. Micro-electric discharge milling is a suitable process to machine microcavities and microchannels in all electrically conductive materials. The main disadvantage of this process is its very low material removal rate. Improving the machining performance of micro-electric discharge machining (μEDM) is a research area that attracts researchers and remains as an unfulfilled agenda. The aim of this study is to improve the machining performance of micro-electric discharge milling process by investigating the performance of cryogenically treated tool and workpiece materials. Since surface roughness determines the minimum feature size machinable by any micromachining process and also it is an important factor in determining the flow characteristics of microchannels, a detailed comparative study was conducted on the three-dimensional (3D) surface quality parameters along with machining performance while using all four different combinations of untreated and cryogenically treated tool and workpiece, and the roughness parameters are correlated with the erosion behavior. The study revealed significant change in material removal rate and erosion pattern due to cryogenic treatment. © 2020 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). All rights reserved.

Journal of Micro and Nano-Manufacturing

Correlation of Three-Dimensional Roughness Parameters with the Crater Dimensions in μeD-Milling of Cryogenic-Treated Tool and Workpiece

Friction stir spot welding is a solid-state welding process where the joints are formed due to plastic deformation. This technique is economically sound when compared to that of Resistance spot welding. In this research work, the process parameters of friction stir spot welded Al 5754-Al 6061 joined were identified with Response Surface Methodology. The results showed that the tool rotational speed was the most significant parameter that impacted the tensile shear force of the weld joint. The maximum load-bearing capacity of 6.060 kN was obtained at 1000 RPM and 0.04 mm/s. Additionally, the influence of plate position and tool profile on the tensile shear force of the weld joint is also studied. The test result obtained at the optimal welding conditions with respect to the plate position and tool profile showed that both the plate position and tool profile had a significant influence on the load-bearing capacity of the weld joint. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Materials Today: Proceedings

Experimental investigation on the influence of process parameters in Friction stir spot welded dissimilar aluminum alloys

The world is undergoing a population explosion; urbanization has also taken giant leaps with higher standards of people. It is noted that the supply and the demand for energy have not been in correlation with one another, as around. When the supply of energy is scaled up, there will large amounts of emissions released from the power plants. Therefore, it is important to focus on capturing and storage of harmful greenhouse gas emissions, using renewable energy resources, so that emission mitigation can be made in an efficient and economically feasible way. The pragmatic analysis of solar-assisted post-combustion carbon capture (SPCC) has been reviewed upon, where the energy compensation of a coal-fired plant due to regeneration of absorbent has been scrutinized. It is also been compared with the integration of geothermal energy (GTCC) for carbon capture. In the adsorption process, various techno-economic analysis of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) integrating solar-assisted temperature swing adsorption has been reported along with the effect of absorbent material in pressure-temperature swing adsorption for CO2 capture. Assessment of solar-assisted CCS are also been accomplished by adopting pliable thinking on the energy system. Finally, the integration with solar thermal power plant using novel Sodium Carbonate as a solvent is discussed. Thus, several parts of the CCS system have been construed with renewable energy towards the goal of zero-emission power generation, which seems highly impossible, can be harnessed by 2050 © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science

Carbon Capture and Storage Using Renewable Energy Sources: A Review

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.

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

Using biogas in IC engines takes a toll on the engine performance due to low volumetric efficiency of the dual-fuel mode and low energy density of biogas, however, some engine modifications can be employed to compensate for this loss in performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of intake air pressure on the engine characteristics of a dual-fuel engine running on biogas and diesel. A single-cylinder four-stroke CI engine is used in dual-fuel mode to perform the tests at different biogas flow rates and different engine loads. A single-stage reciprocating compressor is used to serve as a supercharger to provide air at different pressures to the intake manifold. The results show that the brake thermal efficiency improves by around 2%, and the brake specific energy consumption reduces by 1–4.5% on increasing the intake air pressure. The HC and CO emissions are observed to decrease by around 12% and 15%, respectively. However, very high intake pressures are shown to have less improvement in the HC emissions. There is an increase in the NOx emissions of around 35% with the increase in intake air pressure, however, high air pressures reduce this increase by an amount of around 7%. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.