Skip to main content
Industrial Research And Consultancy Centre

Numerical modeling of lifted flame

Lifted flame is a very complicated turbulence flame; difficult to model thelift-off height. Conditional moment closure (CMC) is an advanced combustion model but it too cannot predict the lift-off height accurately. We have successfully proposed a new model based on extinction criteria (CMCE). CMCE has predicted lift-off heights accurately for a wide range of jet velocities and coflow temperatures in a lesser CPU time. This proposed model helps in modeling gas turbine combustion accurately.

Self cleaning coating

This is the age of smart coatings – which means the coating will act its designated function as per the pre-defined stimulus. Multi-storey glass buildings, ACP facades, solar panels, sophisticated furniture, etc. all gather dust or stains which spoil them. In order to make them stain / dust free, it is advisable to provide the self-cleaning ability.

2D carrier confinement in polar semiconductor wedges: A novel route to achieve high mobility devices

A novel route to achieve 2D carrier confinement in a wedge shaped wall structure made of a polar semiconductor has been demonstrated. Our theory reveals that the wedge shape leads to the development of charges of equal polarity on the two inclined facades of the wall. Polarisation induced negative (positive) charges on the facades can push the electrons (holes) inward for a n-type (p-type) material which results in the formation of a 2D electron (hole) gas at the central plane and ionised donors (acceptors) at the outer edges of the wall.

Gunshot localisation using acoustics

Modern gun-battles are rarely waged on open ground where enemies face each other, and the origin of unfriendly and friendly fire are easy to locate. Instead, most combats are now staged in obstacle-dense situations like cities, forests and mountain valleys, where the location of a shooter may be difficult to pinpoint aurally due to reverberations. More importantly, our security forces may not even be present within audible range of all gunshots at all times, due to the highly mobile nature of modern combat.

Impact of manufacturing defects and operation induced defects on wind turbine blade quality and reliability

Composites have been extensively used in the manufacturing of wind turbine blades over the past two decades. Significant expertise and field experience has been accumulated in the design, manufacturing and repair / maintenance of these wind turbine blades. However, with the increasing blade length, the design imperatives have pushed the materials used for the blade construction from conventional E-glass to carbon fiber based polymer composites. This shift also leads to design shift from stiffness limited design to strength limited design.

Development of particle image velocimetry instrument for fluid velocity measurement

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique is used for measurement of fluid velocity. It involves seeding micron-size particles in a flow, illuminating the particles with a laser pulse, capturing the position of the particles using a camera, and finally interrogating two such time elapsed images to obtain the displacement (and velocity) of the particle (or flow). The technique provides information at numerous points simultaneously and is non-intrusive; these advantages make PIV score substantially higher than conventional techniques (such as Pitot tube).

Flameless combustion: An emissions reduction technique in gas turbine combustors

In current scenario, environmental pollution has become a greater challenge for the whole mankind. Main source of the pollutant includes industrial applications, air and land based traffic. These emissions are mainly CO, NO x and UHC (unburned hydro carbon) causing many harmful effects like acid rain, smog and haze resulting in global warming. It is expected that emissions norms will become stricter in near future. It is reported that by 2025, NO x , CO and UHC should be reduced by 80%.

Development of small scale stand alone thermoelectric power generation systems using microcombustors

Combustion driven power sources offer astounding advantages over conventional chemical batteries, such as higher energy densities, lower weight, short recharging time, limitless number of rechargeable cycles and environment friendly operation. These devices have wide applications in micro satellite thrusters, MEMS, chemical sensing,and micro air vehicles (MAV).

Experimental facility for measurement of laminar burning velocities of multicomponent gaseous fuel mixtures at high temperatures

The cleaner and higher efficiency burning of syngas mixtures in integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) have made syngas the most promising alternative to conventional fossil fuels for power generation. The burning velocity is an intrinsic property of a combustible mixture that characterises the overall reaction rate of the flame. We determined the laminar burning velocities of multi-component mixtures experimentally at elevated temperatures. The combustion characteristics of practical syngas mixtures is vital for efficient use of lean premixed mode of syngas-air mixtures in IGCC.

Flame dynamics in micro/meso scale channels

Identification of small-scale combustion based devices as high energy density source and development of modern microfabrication techniques has led to many opportunities in the area of development of micro-power generation devices. These combustion based micro power devices are expected to feed the portable micromechanical, communication, sensing biomedical systems, UAVs, micro-thrusters and various micro-scale industrial applications.

High fidelity burning velocity data for liquid biofuels for cleaner combustion

The interest of the automotive and aviation community in biofuels has surged in the past decade primarily due to a shift in global awareness towards cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This has translated into stringent policies for fuel usage and emission norms. In this context, the research community has shifted its focus towards biofuels as a part of the larger renewable plan for the planet.

Software technology for machining process simulation and optimisation

Precision machining is perhaps one of the most essential and widely performed manufacturing processes in several industries today, particularly in the aerospace and automotive sectors. It is amongst the few conventional manufacturing processes which ensure that raw materials are converted efficiently into functional components within the tolerance limits set by design. This is crucial in order to ensure optimal system performance.

Composite mounting tray

The Avionics equipments are integrated on various aircrafts using mounting trays. Modern day aircrafts are designed with avionics bays where the avionics equipments are mounted. The mounting tray is an interface between the avionic equipment and the aircraft frame.

These mounting trays should withstand all the dynamic loading conditions like random vibration, Sine on random vibration, gun fire vibration, shock & arrestor landing shock, etc. depending on the aircraft requirements.

webCNC: Internet based CNC machining

Product development activities in the 21 st century face several challenges such as shorter product life cycles, frequent design revisions and need for shortest time to market. Globalisation has added a new dimension to this scenario forcing manufacturers to look for solutions to automate and integrate product life cycle activities. Internet has emerged an excellent tool providing interoperability among designers, manufacturers, suppliers and end users for distributed global product development.

Solidification: An intrinsic physical phenomena in ice-creams, metals and igneous rocks

Melting and freezing phenomena are inherent to several important cross disciplinary applications such as manufacturing of cast products, welding and other fusion processing, polymer processing, food processing, and geophysical systems. These are typically multi-scale and multi-phase in nature. The final product such as an automobile piston or an ice-cream, is a result of a controlled processing of a multi-component material in liquid or semi-solid state.

Oxy-fuel combustion of pulverised coal in a swirl burner

The pulverised coal combustion in a swirl burner is a complex phenomenon. A simplified numerical model, using RANS approach, has been developed in order to predict the combustion processes in a swirl burner with an accuracy comparable to that of Large Eddy Simulations (LES). The effect of different combustion environments such as air, oxy-steam (O 2 /H 2 O) and oxy-recycled flue gas (O 2 /CO 2 ) on gas temperature and NO concentration has been studied.

DNS of growth of a flame kernal in a turbulent premixed medium

Combustion in a conventional spark ignition engine is initiated by a spark. High temperature zone of initially spherical shape is created by the spark and it grows to consume turbulent premixed fuel-air mixture in the combustion chamber.In direct numerical simulation (DNS) all the length and time scales are resolved. DNS of growth of a flame kernel in a turbulent premixed medium provides fundamental insights into the interaction of flame kernel with turbulence.

Full anechoic chamber

A full anechoic chamber has recently been installed in the Aerodynamics Laboratory of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. All four inside walls including ceiling and floor are fitted with sound absorbing non-reflecting wedges which provide ambience with lower cut-off frequency of 200 Hz.

Low noise wind tunnel

This all steel suction type wind tunnel is housed in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and has many unique features. For example, it has high aspect ratio honeycomb constructed out of thin acrylic sheet and 5 very fine stainless steel screens in the settling chamber followed by a 9 to 1 contraction for excellent quality flow with good uniformity and low turbulence level in the test section measuring 3’ x 3’ in cross section and 8’ in length. With these not so big dimensions this wind tunnel happens to be the largest size wind tunnel in the state of Maharashtra.