Recent Trends in Mechanical Engineering

Power outages affect the functionality of commercial and industrial air conditioners. The processes followed by AC units and emissions impacts on global climate. Recently, Indian government banned imports of AC and refrigeration products and components which were supplied from China. But Indian Government understands people’s need for cooling and realizes that an exponential rise in demand for cooling is inevitable. Considering such critical situations, we have designed an eco-friendly air-conditioning module which contains PCM-based heat exchanger for indirect evaporative cooling and eco-friendly designs for direct evaporative cooling. Eco-friendly designs of convergent shape are manufactured by considering software analysis results and by following the same steps required for manufacturing of soil pot. Software analysis results of the whole experimental setup showed a temperature reduction in the range of 7–10 °C. Required humidity is achievable by controlling some parameters. Material used for this project is completely economical and easily available. Poisonous and harmful refrigerants and greenhouse gases are not used in this project. It is smaller, compact, economical and efficient. Also, there are no noticeable direct and indirect emissions from this experimental setup. This research paper includes software analysis for studying cooling effect and humidity control, design and performance analysis of PCM-based heat exchanger and related research work to achieve desired temperature reduction.

Green CNC drilling is a machining process where deionised water, tap water and dry air are used as coolant to increase the efficiency, quality of product and reduce the harmful industrial waste (solid and gaseous). In this research paper, GRA and TOPSIS with PCA method are used to optimized the multiple response parameters of green CNC drilling on HcHcr using HSS twist drill bit. The work considered point angle, spindle speeds, drill diameters and feed rates as input variables, while tool vibration, burr length and thrust force as output parameters. Initially, experimentation is performed based on Taguchi’s L27-OA and recorded the response parameters. Additionally, ANOVA is carried out to determine the influential parameter at 95% confidence level. The results show that optimum conditions of drilling parameters using GRA-PCA are point angle 136°; spindle speed 1800 rpm; feed rate 1.2 mm/rev and drill diameters 8 mm and using TOPSIS-PCA point angle 136°; Spindle speed 900 rpm; feed rate 0.8 mm/rev and drill diameters 8 mm. Further, analysis of variance is performed on grey grade value (in case of GRA-PCA) and observed that the drill diameter is highly influential process parameters with the highest 49.63% contribution. Similarly, analysis of variance is performed on preference value (in case of TOPSIS-PCA) and it is found spindle speed is most significant process parameters with the highest 86.71% contribution. The confirmatory tests are performed on obtained optimal values and results show that the final gains are 0.007006 and 0.005528 in grey grade value and preference value respectably.

A computational fluid dynamic analysis on axisymmetric inlet has been performed, to investigate the flow properties of a ram jet engine with a conical inlet. This paper describes about the analysis of different conical inlets with varying semi-vertex angles, angle of attack (AOA) and Mach numbers. Results have shown that as the angle of attack increases, the static pressure ratio decreases, for the constant semi-vertex angle, the static pressure ratio increases with increase in Mach number, as the semi-vertex angle increases, the static pressure ratio increases. It is observed that a pressure recovery of 96% can be achieved for a free-stream Mach number of 1.5 with angle of attack of 0° for 10° cone angle and 98.5% can be achieved for 15° cone angle.

The paper deals with the influence of heat input on metallurgical and mechanical properties that have been investigated through experimental and numerical investigations. Two process parameters were taken to conduct the experiments. Thermocouples were used to measure temperature distributions. The heat generated during the friction stir welding (FSW) affected the grain refinements strongly, which were revealed with optical microscope (OM) micrographs. A three-dimensional model was developed to obtain the simulated temperature during the FSW of AA 2024-T4. The simulated temperature data was very close to that of the experimental data. It was observed that the heat generation depends on both transverse and rotational speed, and the peak temperature obtained was about 80% of the melting point of base metal. Additionally, tensile tests were performed for joint strength.

Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), especially its new variant cold metal transfer (CMT) process is regarded as one of the most potential and advanced additive manufacturing processes. The process parameters play an extremely influential role in determining the dimensional accuracy of the part manufactured, stability of the process and obtainment of other important process outcomes of interest. Hence, subtle determination of a suitable combination of the process parameters stands extremely crucial, as a result of which, process modelling and parameter optimization of WAAM has been an intriguing subject of research over a past few decades. In this paper, a reliable predictive system has been attempted using computational intelligence to estimate the input conditions so as to achieve the desired nominal responses qualifying the key performances. Artificial neural network models have been developed, envisaging Levenberg–Marquardt training algorithm in order to achieve a bi-directional predictive capability for a set of 3 inputs and 12 responses. Optimal network parameters like initial weight and hidden layer neurons have been determined by validation performance while training the same samples in multiple trials. R-squared values of the training samples and mean absolute percentage errors of the test samples for each response have been found quite satisfactory suggesting fairly adequate predictive models. With this approach, both forward and backward mappings have been successfully achieved.

In the recent time, miniature type electronic chips are useful in aerospace technology, micro-electromechanical systems, hybrid data centres, and microfluidics. Usefulness of these chips increases if the generated heat can be eliminated for stable and reliable operation. Microchannel heat sinks are one of the possible ways to dissipate heat for larger heat flux generation. Over a last couple of decades, many researches have been performed on microchannel heat sink to measure the pressure drop and thermal resistance. With the help of these, one can determine the efficiency of a microchannel. To estimate the pressure drop and thermal resistance on microchannel, many researches have been concentrated on design of it. In the present study, converged diverged (CD) microchannel is used to compare its thermal performance with straight microchannel. Main aim of this study is to see the effect of intermixing on thermal performance of a convergent-divergent microchannel. A bar chart of average inlet and outlet temperatures has also been studied to see the effect of intermixing on thermal performances of a CD microchannel. The average inlet taken was 298 K, and average outlet temperature was found to be 313.47 K.

In the present paper, stress concentration factors (SCF) of sandwich plates with elliptical notch at corner subjected to out plane load are studied. The mathematical modeling of the present problem is done using secant function-based shear deformation theory (SFSDT) with geometrical nonlinearity. Minimum potential energy method is used to derive the bending governing equation. Influence of cutout dimensions, fiber orientations, plate span to thickness ratios, and boundary conditions are investigated using a MATLAB program. The present outcomes are compared with the outcomes of already published work.

Axial flow compressors/fans are widely used machines in industrial as well as aircraft gas turbine engines. The performance improvement of such machines has improved significantly due to key efforts of researchers and engineers. The hard work and research inputs require for the development of a single compressor which includes years of careful study and investigations. Rotor is a primary element of any axial compressor/fan which imparts kinetic energy to fluid, and so, the designers have emphasized more on the rotor design. Present study incorporates an effort for the development of a low-speed axial flow compressor/fan rotor blade based on NACA 65-series airfoil. The limiting design parameters are selected from the grounded axial fan test rig available in the department lab. The study initiates with one-dimensional flow parameters calculation based on velocity triangle at mean location and is extended for total 11-radial locations from hub to tip. The blade angles are obtained from correlations available in literatures, and the corrected angles are used to set up selected airfoil profile along spanwise locations using commercial modeling tool. Once the airfoils are stacked on one another, a solid blade model is developed. This is further extended to develop entire rotor with calculated number of blades. The data obtained from the present study are validated with the available literature plots and are in good trend. The obtained blade has high pressure variation and total pressure loss close to tip. The blade has higher camber close to hub and lower camber at higher spanwise positions.

To fulfill the high requirement of safety and comfort in automobiles, many new technologies are applied in suspension system. Damper acts an important role in suspension system for eliminating vibration. Bingham model of magneto-rheological (MR) damper is proposed for obtaining the control forces. In this work, proportional integral derivative (PID) controller gain parameters are adapted by the output parameters of fuzzy logic control to regulate the damper in the suspension system. The vehicle body deflections for two different road profiles are chosen for the performance analysis of fuzzy tuned PID controller and only PID controller. On the basis of simulation results, it is observed that fuzzy logic-based PID controller displays more improvement in efficiency and comfort level of riders by decreasing the amplitude of the vibration as compared to PID controller.

In this paper, we study a hysterically damped tuned mass system. We note that tuned mass dampers are extensively used in practical systems in order to reduce the dynamic response of the primary structures. The theory of tuned mass systems with viscous damping is well established. Simple tuned mass systems, with linear viscous damping, are analytically tractable. In reality, in many systems, we see damping are hysteretic in nature. Hysteresis is a strongly nonlinear phenomenon. Analytical study of tuned mass systems with hysteretic damping is therefore challenging. Here, we use a rate-independent hysteresis model developed by Biswas et al. in Int J Mech Sci 108:61–71, 2016, as the damper. We use numerical and semi-analytical approaches to study the dynamic responses of systems. The amplitude versus frequency curves shows two resonance peaks. The numerical and analytical results show good match.

The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is the latest technology, and also the accuracy is very close to the experimental analysis. In the present work, the effect of shape and size of feedstock powder particles is analyzed upon impact velocity of cold spray (CS) coating via CFD analysis. The geometry for the work has been drawn by SolidWorks, and the analysis has been carried out through fluent. The analysis has been carried out with the best input parameters for CS coating. The pressure-based; axisymmetric model has been used to solve the CS nozzle. The most realistic two-equation realizable k-ɛ model has been taken for the analysis. In this analysis, there is a range of particle diameter or varying particle sizes, and with varying the standoff distance from the nozzle, exit/outlet has been taken. The analysis is carried out using copper as the spray powder particles and steel as the substrate material. It has been found that the spherical shape of powder particles is more reliable when sprayed with a standoff distance of 35 mm.

Heat exchangers are widely being used in various fields throughout the world. All cooling systems find various applications in industry, domestic, etc. Energy consumption reduction in cooling system is always a challenging task. An experimental setup is fabricated to study the heat transfer rate of an evaporator coil. Ethylene glycol is a secondary refrigerant and considered as a working fluid. The influence of the cooling liquid inlet temperature on air cooling is studied. The average temperature drop in inlet air is around 9 °C for maximum cooling liquid inlet temperature as −8 °C. The experimental results demonstrate that the ethylene glycol can be used in cooling system for small operating temperature range for different applications.

Exergy and energy analysis of combined ejector refrigeration cycle coupled with exhaust of solar energy, gas turbine, geothermal energy and industrial waste heat has been presented, using working fluids R141b, R152a, R600a and R717. The results of the study demonstrate that as evaporator temperature increases, COP increases and exergy efficiency decreases, though both continuously increases and decreases with ejector inlet pressure, condensing pressure and ejector inlet temperature, respectively. Refrigerant R717 gives the maximum COP of 0.836 and exergetic efficiency of 12.74% among others, at condensing pressure of 30 kPa and evaporation temperature of 258 K, respectively, and R600a gives minimum value of COP and exergetic efficiency. The results of the study signify that evaporator temperature, ejector inlet pressure, condenser temperature and ejector inlet temperature strongly influence the refrigeration effect, exergetic efficiency and entrainment ratio of such system.

The necessity for reducing pollution due to increased population and its adverse effects on health and the environment has called for worldwide government policies. Researchers and engineers from automobile communities have been working on the advanced design and development of a diesel engine to meet these mandatory emission regulations. The split injection among these new developments has proven to be the key to reduce soot and NOx emissions in diesel engines. The split injection system is augmented with various low-temperature combustion (LTC) modes like homogeneous charge compression ignition engine (HCCI), premixed charge compression ignition engine (PCCI), and reactivity controlled compression ignition engine (RCCI) to counter the drawback of the traditional approach. This review paper provides a compilation of these recent innovations. A comprehensive overview of abundant research carried out for different split injection schemes in these LTC modes has been presented in the current research work. All these modern strategies and advancements in the split injection system are investigated and compared to expose and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses to arrive at a prominent solution.

Renewable energy resources are becoming a major demanding area in recent years due to alarming global warming and climate change. This adverse situation demands minimal use of fossil fuel and maximum use of renewable energy including sunlight, wind, tides, biomass, hydropower, etc. The use of renewable energy resources also helps in overall sustainable development. This research work uses a hybrid approach of multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) consisting of stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) for selection suitable material for the solar panel. The study has taken into consideration of twelve important criteria that affect the solar panel material and three alternatives of solar panel material available. The result shows that silicon metal is the most suitable material for solar panels compared to germanium and gallium phosphate. Consequently, this research could help solar panel manufacturers for proper selection of solar panel material and hence, effective utilization of renewable energy.

The fuels derived from conventional sources are becoming increasingly expensive on account of their growing demand and non-renewable nature. The fossil fuels find necessity in a range of industrial sectors pivotal to the economy, including but not limited to power generation, manufacturing, and transportation, which exacerbates their deleterious effects. This being the case, the search for alternative sources of fuel and their widespread integration in practice is imperative. To that end, biodiesel obtained from sunflower oil can be considered, owing to its many utilitarian qualities, like high oil content of about 40%, which leads to highly efficient yields of about 600 pounds of oil per acre. The review focuses on the wide range of production methods proposed for sunflower biodiesel, based on extant research data, and how the fuel output ensues from each of those methods, in terms of their properties, which have a bearing ultimately on their performance in a Compression Ignition (CI) Engine. Attention has been given to comparing a wide variety of catalysts employed in the transesterification process, which is predominantly used to produce the fuel. Data has been gathered on the properties exhibited by the different variants of fuel, in order to weigh up the relative merits of each option and select the one most suited to fulfill any requirement. A comprehensive research has been done to study all technical aspects involved in the production of sunflower biodiesel, in order to aid in the possible supplantation of fossil fuels by sunflower biodiesel.

The cold spraying, a solid-state deposition phenomenon relates to one of the thermal spray coating. It is an innovative coating technology mainly based on metals and ceramic particle's high-speed impact on different substrates in which solid powders are propagated towards a substrate. It is one of the promising technologies offering several technological advantages and utilizes kinetic. Several undesired effects can be avoided, like oxidation. For every spray material, there is a specific critical velocity below which the spray particle will not be able to form a proper bonding. The sprayed particle will adhere to the substrate due to impact and high kinetic energy. This paper presents an insight of different aspects of cold spraying process parameters related to mechanical properties and the history of the emergence of this process, and types are also reviewed.

Water droplets descend through the flow field and strike the airfoil surface during hostile conditions of torrential rainfall and icing. Rain affects aircraft performance like any other hazardous weather conditions such as gusts, precipitation, and shear winds. The increment in CD and decrement in CL value denotes the adverse impact of rain on aerodynamic characteristics. The review article describes the intricate mechanism of droplet dynamics which involves splashing of droplets and water film formation on airfoil surface. The changes in flow field characteristics in presence of rain due to fluid and solid interaction are also focused on. Effects of surface wettability and premature boundary layer transition due to boundary layer tripping on aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil are visualized.

This paper presents the energy analysis of a theoretical multi-generation plant which utilizes integrated solar thermal energy and ocean thermal energy for hydrogen and desalinated water production. The proposed novel plant consists of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) unit coupled with a solar boosted Multi-Effect Distillation (MED-TVC) unit. The temperature difference of the seawater pumped from both surface and depth of the oceans is utilized to produce electricity at the OTEC unit and then fed as feedwater to the MED-TVC plant for desalination. For the first time in literature, a parabolic trough collector (PTC) field is incorporated to act as the heat source for the MED-TVC unit. The waste heat recovered from MED-TVC unit is utilized to superheat the OTEC plant to improve its thermal efficiency and electricity generation. The electricity generated from the combined system is entirely utilized to power a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) electrolyser-based hydrogen production unit. Basic thermodynamic equilibrium equations for mass and energy were balanced for individual components of the system. A comprehensive parametric investigation is carried out for the proposed system and found that integrated plant can produce 2.471 kg/s of hydrogen and 89.21 kg/s of desalinated water under steady state operating conditions. Further, the energy efficiency of the multi-generation plant was found out to be 29.43%.

Machine learning predictions algorithms have been used in different scenarios by earlier researchers. This article found the application of these algorithms for predictions of the material deposition rate of copper ions through high-speed selective jet electrodeposition (HSSJED). The presented article emphasizes the selection of the best suitable machine learning prediction algorithms among Gaussian process regression (GPR), support vector machine (SVM), and linear regression (LR) for prediction and compares them with each other for selection of the best algorithm which agrees with experimental data. The comparison of performances of these machine learning algorithms has been done taking root-mean-square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R2), mean squared error (MSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) as a basic measure for the same, and also various graphs have been plotted and discussed for better understanding. The dataset has been collected by performing the HSSJED experiment on various parameters like electrolyte composition, electrode gap, and applied dc potential. It has been found that GPR predictions are better than the other two which also agree with the experimental output as the quantitative comparison has been done, and results are discussed.

The life span of many engineering components depends upon their surface properties. The improved surface properties of the materials are essential for enhancing the mechanical and tribological performance of the material. The tribological behaviors of sintered composites under dry sliding condition were analyzed by using pin on disk tribometer (Model no: DUCOM-TR-20-M100). Particle size of elemental powder of Al70Cu22Ti8 was measured by Malvern laser particle size analyzer. PSM shows the variation in median size with milling time. The effect of density and hardness on wear behavior of composite has been analyzed. DSC examines the physical behavior of Al-based intermetallic as a function of time and temperature. DSC study shows the presence of small endothermic peak at 535 °C for formation of Al2Cu and two exothermic peaks at 701 °C and 850 °C for formation of other intermetallic like AlTi3, Cu9Al4, and AlCu. A maximum of 81% theoretical density was obtained for the composite powder mixture sintered at 1100 °C for 1 h. Wear study shows that TiO2 and Y2O3 dispersed base alloy have higher wear resistance than base alloy.

The objective of the present work is to study the recognition of prior learning (RPL) in the Indian scenario. Through an examination and assessment of a current RPL, it tries to toss light on the capability of RPL to help support skills development, and the difficulties around its inauguration in India, and the approach and practice that can bolster future advancement in this area. India’s vast informal segment incorporates a great many individuals with unrecognized skills for whom RPL could be a truly necessary advancement once more into education and training, from which they may have been barred till date. Through a progression of contextual investigation, it was planned to assess the GAPs regarding creating and managing RPL and the perspectives of the initiatives from Certifying Agencies on the achievement and success of the programme. Given the nascent stage of development, this initiative is at, the assessment does not conclude the post-assessment impact on job roles, access to training or other forms of progression. An innovative approach has been built up to assessment design in the absence of funds/targets that form the basis of RPL and have effectively created assessments that can be actualized on a gigantic scale. The research converges to outlining and building up another model for RPL that may start to lay the basis for a more extensive presentation of RPL and it as effective as possible in contributing to skilling India.

India is the home of second largest population in the world. A huge section of India’s unorganized workforce is unskilled and semi-skilled. Maximum people picked up skills, trainings, and knowledge from an informal setup by observing skilled workers and by working under their supervision or through complete self-learning. The skill development ecosystem directly affects the Human Development Index (HDI) factor which is an universal indicator of overall development of any country or society. It emphasizes the availability of livelihood opportunities to household of any nation. The need of skill development in India and its impact is emerging with time since the first introduced Apprenticeship Act 1961 till Skill Development Policy 2015 and now the New Education Policy 2020. This review document will cover the significant, essential and relevant research, reviews, policies, policies reviews, and govt. notifications in order to understand the current stand of skill development scenario in INDIA.

Automotive engines fueled by fossil fuel have contributed to a surge in ambient air pollution and the exhaustion of these fuels. To overthrow flaws posed by fossil fuels, a substitute is required. Fuels, namely CNG, LPG, alcohols, hybrid fuels, and bio-diesel, can be a substitute for fossil fuel for CI engines. To study alternate fuel viability in CI engine, investigators performed experiments which are deficient and prolonged time absorbing; therefore, modeling approaches have been adopted for better analysis. One of such modeling techniques is ANN. ANN can resolve complex tasks where numerical or traditional methods fail or are ineffective. ANN overview, application, and forecast of ANN on CI engine emission, performance is assessed. The study revealed that the majority of the investigations yield desirable engine characteristics prediction outcomes using ANN. The contrast between predicted and experimental results revealed a strong correlation coefficient, showing that the ANN model could effectively predict CI engine emissions and performance characteristics.

Effective utilization of solar thermal energy is one of the thrust full areas of research for a sustainable future. Stirling engines are a promising technology which is widely used to produce kW level electric power from solar energy using parabolic dish concentrators. However, due to design imperfections, typical Stirling engines approximately have 51% heat loss. This energy can be utilized for additional power generation via coupling an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) with a waste heat recovery unit. The previous investigations shown a 41.5% overall efficiency of combined Stirling-ORC systems and adding ORC to Stirling cycle can improve power output and efficiency by 4% and 8%, respectively. However, these systems have not yet been coupled with solar thermal energy, and its real-time feasibility has to be evaluated energetically and exergetically. In the present investigation, a typical solar parabolic dish system is considered as a heat source to the Stirling heat engine. The effect of real-time solar irradiation and absorber temperature on performance of solar Stirling-ORC system has been quantified. It was found that 48% of the total energy lost by the Stirling cycle can be recovered by combining it with ORC. With the intention of design emphasis, a component wise exergy destruction rate is evaluated and illustrated. Further, a selection criterion for working fluids of ORC is also evolved.

Mild steel possesses a unique combination of mechanical properties, hence frequently used as a structural material. While poor tribological properties of mild steel restricted to use of a wide range of applications; therefore, laser cladding process gained much attention to improve tribological properties of mild steel by providing a composite layer near the surface. The properties of the composite layer influenced by the use of matrix as well as reinforcement materials. In the present work, authors have discussed in detail the effect of coating materials as well as process parameters of cladding techniques such as current, voltage, scan speed, stand-off distance (SOD), beam focal position, and feeding ways of coating materials (in case of laser cladding) on microstructure, wear resistance, coefficient of friction, and microhardness of a composite layer of mild steel. The methods to providing the coating powder during cladding on the mild steel are summarized. Problems create during cladding on mild steel; some solution and preparation tendencies are also reviewed.

Solar stills are considered as a cheaper solution for potable water production in developing and underdeveloped nations. Numerous experimental studies have been done in this area to show that use of dome shaped or hemispherical solar still top cover gives better performance and distillate output. However, most of the investigations rely on experimentally developed empirical relations for different types of conventional flat plate solar still. These models come into use whilst accurately predicting the performance of a flat plate type solar still but not for dome shaped or hemispherical shaped collectors. In the present study, emphasis has been given to developing an accurate model for estimation of the solar irradiance on dome shaped collectors/stills. Since the dome shape is not a conventional shape, the amount of radiation incident on the surface is different from flat surface. A comparative investigation is carried out between four types of dome shapes with different cap angle and flat plate, for a period of twelve months geographical location (Chennai - 13°N, 80°16′E). It was found that a dome shaped collector receives more sunlight compared to flat plate throughout the day. Typically, an increased irradiance of 50–100 W/m2 was got during morning and evening time and a slight decrease of 10–40 W/m2 during noon. The computation model uses finite element method and also takes into consideration of the dome surface area under shadow which is not facing sun directly. The developed model will be useful for predicting the performance of dome shaped solar collectors/stills.

When nose cone travels in hypersonic flow, it experiences high vibration due to which the nose cones are prone to damage. The secondary issue is that the material used for manufacturing of nose cone, i.e., HRSI is less abundant. The main aim of this work was to design a nose cone suitable for hypersonic flow and to propose an appropriate material that can be used in the nose cones. On further study of various researches, it was found that among nose cones, parabolic nose cones with fineness ratio (L/D) greater than 1.2 are more efficient for hypersonic flow because it produces less heat flux as well as lesser drag force. At present, high-temperature reusable surface insulation (HRSI) ceramics are one among the popular choices for materials used in the nose cones. But HRSI ceramics have lesser availability compared to other ceramics. The main objective here is to provide a viable and cost-effective solution. Therefore, alternative ceramics with good mechanical as well as good refractory properties and a metal alloy were selected. Two ceramic materials, namely zirconia, mullite, and a metal alloy, namely alpha–beta titanium aluminum alloy, were chosen. Finally, vibrational analyzes of these three nose cones were made using ANSYS software. The deformation results of these nose cones were compared, and the suitable material was selected. It was found that the nose cone made up of zirconia ceramic was found to have the least deformation. Therefore, zirconia was proposed as a better alternative ceramic material that can be used in hypersonic nose cones.

Additive manufacturing is one of the imperative components in the Industry 4.0 framework. It is widely used in concurrent engineering for effective product development and many other vital domains. Extensive research is being carried out in a continuum of Industry 4.0 fields, namely Internet of things, cloud computing, cybersecurity, autonomous robotics, big data, simulation, and augmented reality. AM has a crucial impact in these fields. This review paper provides a comprehensive study in various spheres of additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0. This research also provides a profound inter-association of these systems in the domain of product development and optimization of process parameters, which can be later employed in biomedical, aerospace, and construction applications. The exploration would foster a crucial review of the subject and reveal the matter to understand the future latitude in the domain. The study embraces the amalgamation of various ecosystems in Industry 4.0 and frameworks to substantially affect the research and development in numerous industries. This review study will support industries to keep themselves alongside the advancements in additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

Fused filament printing is the most popular process used in most of the 3D printing machines as compared to other techniques. Polylactic acid (PLA) filament is primarily used for product development in desktop 3D printers due to its lower printing temperature. A measurable amount of material is wasted during 3D printing during the handling of various parameters. This waste filament material along with raw material is used in a 3D printer extruder machine to create recycled PLA. 3D printed parts are printed using the imported filament and filament produce from the extruder machine. A set of tensile tests on three specimens are carried out to check the mechanical properties of these two specimens. A comparative analysis of mechanical properties (tensile) is represented in the paper. Results show that using recycled filament, there is a slight decrease in the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation in the recycled filament part.

India is the fastest-growing country in the world, and the demand for energy increases day by day. Renewable energy sources play an important role to fulfill the energy demand. International Energy Agency identified wind energy as the main source of renewable energy. Wind energy is clean and pollution-free energy. Wind power production capacity in India increased in recent years. At present, India has the fourth-highest wind energy installed capacity in the world. Wind energy virtually is a form of solar energy when the surface of the earth differential heating then creates pressure difference and flow the wind from high pressure to low pressure. The wind has kinetic energy, and these converted into electric energy with the help of a wind turbine. This article discussed the potential of wind energy in the different states of India and compared wind energy production with the world.

Graphene is a two-dimensional, nuclear scale, the hexagonal grid in which one particle frames every vertex. It can likewise be considered as an inconclusively enormous fragrant particle, a definitive instance of the group of level polycyclic sweet-smelling hydrocarbons. Due to the unique properties, graphene membranes have numerous applications in fields like Biomedical, Composites, Coatings Electronics, Energy, Membranes, Sensors, and Water Filtration. The present disclosure relates to the process of developing a portable water filter using CAD modeling and ANSYS simulation. The idea is to use vertically aligned graphene membranes to purify water. Graphene is produced using different methods and is extracted from the substrate by etching it in a specific chemical. The graphene membranes are placed on one and each other to form a thick foam-like structure. The graphene foam-like structure can be embedded into any shape using 3D designing and modeling. The pore size of the graphene membranes is small enough that it only allows water molecules to pass through it. The dirt and unwanted particles get blocked by the membranes. This technique can be used for the desalination of seawater. The uniqueness of this product is that the membranes are replaceable, and the cost is very low as compared to the other water filter. There is no requirement for water storage and no use of electricity for the filtration as a result the energy is also conserved. The wastage of water during the filtration is negligible.

The thermal analysis of polymer heat sink for thermal management of prismatic Li-ion battery used in electric vehicles is presented. A battery pack consisting 22 prismatic cells has been considered for this analysis. On the sides of battery, coolant channels made up of polymer are placed referred as heat sink here. Because of the contact between the battery surface and the channel, heat transfer takes place between the battery and the coolant flowing through the polymer channels. The system proposed here considers polymer as heat sink material to reduce the weight of the system. Transient simulations based on the multi-scale multi-domain model implemented in ANSYS-Fluent have been carried out at constant discharge current for different C-rates. For the different charging/discharging rates (0.5–2 C), the maximum battery temperature rise of a single prismatic cell is observed to be 8 °C; however, the maximum temperature difference across a hole battery pack reached 40 °C. Results of the study depict that the heat sink or heat exchanger made up of polymer by additive manufacturing process shows significant capability to be implemented in battery thermal management system in electric vehicles.

It is known that bulk porosity of structures is negatively correlated to their mechanical properties (e.g., Young’s moduli). But, in reference to bone tissue engineering (BTE), favorable bulk porosity levels are also known. Thus, in reference to design porous structures as scaffolds, bulk porosity is not much of much use. Therefore, to the design the porous lattice structures as scaffolds to assist in BTE, it is required to quantify the effect of secondary architectural features (like shape of pores) on mechanical properties through a general robust mathematical framework. With the help of micromechanics and available scaling laws, this work reports the following findings. In the form of general mixture rule (GMR), we have a computationally validated unified general framework to map the change in Young’s moduli (stiffness) of porous lattice structures with change in shape of pores at given bulk porosity levels. GMR may be useful to guide the design of porous lattice structures as scaffolds with desired stiffness to minimize the phenomena of stress shielding and thus may provide assistance in bone tissue engineering.

The consistently expanding demand for transport is supported by both spark and compression ignition engines. Due to globalization and rapidly expanding economies, the necessity for transport energy is enormous and constantly expanding across the world. IC engines till date prove to be the best source of powering an automobile. Even though they have been in use for many decades, there is always scope for improvement in technologies related to it. IC engines waste a huge amount of fuel energy via exhausts. Technologies like turbo-compounding prove to be useful to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Other modifications made to the design of intake manifold also result in changes to torque and horsepower. There are not many fully developed elective choices that may replace the internal combustion engines as they are in developing stages. As of 2020, 99.8% of the transportation worldwide is powered by IC engines and 95% of the energy comes from petroleum-based fuels. The researchers and engineers have to develop technologies to enhance the power output of the IC engines in order to fulfill the needs. This paper reviews enhancement of the IC engine by various intake boosting techniques in terms of better performance, progressive combustion and improved emissions while discussing future trends.

Composite materials are used in aeronautical, automobile, healthcare and marine industries due to their high stiffness, higher strength-to-weight ratio and long fatigue life. Thin plate plays vital role in manufacturing of engineering structures. Components made from composite materials often subjected damage while working. Buckling can cause loss of stability of component which subsequently leads to failure of the entire structure. This paper deals with the effect of rectangular cutout on the buckling behavior of composite square plate. Cutouts are generally used for ventilation and to reduce the weight of component. This study investigates the critical buckling load for square plate with rectangular cutout of various aspect ratios and different stacking sequences. Classical laminated plate theory (CLPT) is used for analytical calculations, and the obtained values are compared with the results of FEA carried out in ANSYS.

The second-order perturbation method is utilized for mixed (first and second) mode stress intensity factor (MMSIF) of functionally graded materials (FGMs) plate with edge crack under mechanical loadings. Extended finite element method (XFEM) is utilized for the fracture analysis of cracked FGM plate, and the stochastic based analysis is done by second-order perturbation technique (SOPT) for computation of mean and coefficient of variance (COV). The uncorrelated random parameters’ material properties, crack length and crack angle are utilized in this present work. The purpose of present study is to find the critical random parameters, which are affecting more on MMSIF. The numerical results are evaluated for different gradient coefficients, crack angles, crack lengths with random system properties. The MATLAB [R2015a] environment is utilized for this study.

Abrasive flow machining (AFM) has been imperative for the finishing of parts with varied materials and geometries. Hence, many researchers have tried to enhance aspects like surface finish and material removal rate to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the conventional process. This paper focuses on the reviews of all hybridizations conducted, their mathematical models, results of simulations, and varied experimental conditions to practically come up with a much enhanced and cost-effective machining process. It also discusses the comparison of these models with the actual experimental results and also talks about the authenticity of all these models. In the end, research gaps and areas for future scope have been found out from various research papers. It was concluded that processes like MAAFM, CFAAFM and UAAFM have immense practical machining advantages, over other processes, and modeling of TACAFM has been the most efficient till now.

A powerful, effective, and strong supply chain network system is a feasible upper hand for nations and firms and helps them to adapt to expanding natural turbulences and more exceptional aggressive weights. The supply chain network modeling is an important research area in the current scenario, and a lot of work is being done to optimize the network design to maximize profit and minimize the costs as well as dealing with uncertainties in the market. Recently, the supply chain network design is also being studied under the spectrum of environmental impacts and sustainability. Today, a mix of a physical channel and online channel serves customer needs more adequately than utilizing a single channel. This multichannel supply chain network provides choice, flexibility, and better responsiveness for firms. This review covered the available literature focusing on all these various aspects under one umbrella and addressed few research directions in the multichannel perspective to incorporate the changes in the supply chain models.

Among the renewable energy, solar bubble dryer is cost-effective drying technologies for rural India. Solar bubble dryers’ technical and scientific study for Indian conditions with respect to this simulation studies was performed. To dry agricultural produce in this technology, we are using solar PV panel to blow the air thus making complete renewable energy based and to reduce environmental concerns associated with post-harvesting technologies. Solar bubble dryer 3D environmental study results indicated 340–360 K (6 h, 9 AM–5 PM). There were two stagnation areas at the inlet section, and further, it has increased the temperature in these zones up to 380 K in the mid of the day 1 PM–3 PM. As the studies were preliminary, one only concentrated on steady-state analysis. Air sufficiently alleviated to dry agricultural produce in solar bubble dryer. Further, it can be extended to time-dependent study.

For the efficient working of a cabinet dryer, air distribution and temperature distribution inside the cabinet plays an significant role in obtaining better drying efficiency so that specific energy requirement for drying can be reduced. It becomes inevitable to study and optimize these distributions in the dryer prior to the development of the dryer and finalizing the pattern of tray arrangement. In view of this, the paper deals with study of different parametric optimization using computation fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with heat transfer in cabinet dryer has been studied. CFD simulation included the study of number of air inlet, orientation of inlet, tray arrangements to study the velocity and temperature distribution in 3D environment in the dryer. The CFD simulation study showed that zig-zag orientation of tray with horizontal single air inlet and multiple air outlets has better velocity and temperature distribution rather than other cases of study. Single inlet vertical bottom intake for staggered orientation of tray is least preferred one from the point of temperature and velocity distribution.

In this research work, experimental investigations and computational studies on curved pipe were performed. CFD analysis of turbulent flow through a curved pipe has been performed using standard different turbulence models. Various flow parameters such as velocity, discharge, pressure difference and Reynolds number have been calculated by using experimental observations. The pressure difference value using abovementioned turbulence models has been calculated. Then, the comparison between experimental and data obtained from CFD analysis was carried out. Computational investigations with different turbulence models help to understand the flow pattern in an elbow. CFD simulations were performed using ANSYS FLUENT CFD software. Obtained computational results are matching well with experimental observations. Some important flow patterns such as secondary flow were explained with the help of CFD results.

Gears are used to transmit the power from one shaft to another by means of successively engaging teeth. The materials used for gears range from metal to polymer composite materials. Composite materials are widely used in structures with weight as a critical factor, especially in aerospace industry and in many other industries. Recently, additive manufacturing technology has gained lot of importance in making composite materials. The amount of power transmitted by gears mainly depends on the bending strength of gear tooth. This paper deals with experimental determination of bending stress in teeth of 3D printed gear. The main purpose of the test is to determine the maximum tensile bending stress developed in gear using single tooth specimen.

Recent advances in motion control technology placing various challenges in terms of accuracy & speed of operations. Development of accurate model & algorithm becomes the important aspect in robotics and control operation. It is seen that, 3–4 degrees of freedom robotic arms are the most common in industries and mostly used by medium and large scaled industries. In industries, there is a great need of constantly moving the goods from one place to another in logistics, warehouses, etc. This task is trivial and does not require human decision-making skills. But, employing robotic arms is expensive and requires skilled workers to operate them. Currently most of the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises use human workers to accomplish this task. A robotic arm can perform this function with negligible amount of human interference. Proposed robotic arm will make sure that the workers can perform other skilful tasks also. With the help of 5 degrees of freedom, it also makes the task of goods manipulation easy and moves around in the facility with the help of its car. It performs the required tasks at different places which attempts to eliminate the need of incorporating static robotic arms. Proposed robotic is controlled with a smartphone and saves the motion of robotic arm as well as the motion of the car which in turn helps in autonomous operation. The developed algorithm has the ability to control the motion of the robot in the indoor designated area.

Drying of agriculture products is a process which demands energy. Due to environmental aspects, high cost and limited availability of fossil fuel an alternate solution must be found. Solar energy is most abundant, clean and sustainable energy source among all the form of green energy. In solar thermal system, solar dryer is a very important device for crop/vegetables drying. Moisture removal from the product is the basic operation of dryer. The process of drying reduces the bacterial growth on the products and as the growth reduces it extends the preservation time of the product. In solar dryers, indirect type solar dryer one of the important types of solar dryer in which solar radiation is absorbed by the absorber plate and transferred to the flowing air through the duct, finally the heated air is used for drying of products. The aim of present work is to review on the different types of investigations carried out in the field of development of indirect type forced convection solar dryer combined with solar air heater. In addition to this, research gap has been also identified for future work.

This review paper summarizes the design method and the behaviour of Cold-formed steel (CFS) building components. On the basis of literature review we can investigate the behaviour of CFS Building components such as beam, column, light gauge stud walls in fire consideration and zero temperature. The fire resistance capacity of CFS is implicit which may limit its application. An excellent knowledge about its mechanical properties is indispensable for fire design purposes. CFS sections are light in weight and its construction is also easy, therefore CFS is progressively used in the construction industry. Rolling, pressing, stamping, bending, and other cold-working procedure are carried out at room temperature to form CFS products. Columns, pillars/beams, joists, studs, floor decking, built-up sections, and other structural and non-structural products are made from CFS sections as thin gauge sheets in manufacturing.

Among all the renewable sources of energy, sun is a valuable source of energy. Solar energy is utilized for various purposes, one of which is water heating via solar collectors in domestic and industry related areas. In contrast to other solar energy applications, solar collector systems for water heating require low maintenance and operating costs. They are broadly classified as active and passive solar water heating systems operating in either direct or indirect mode. This paper reviews the recent advancement and improvements in solar water heaters with different kinds of solar collectors, including both concentrating and non-concentrating types. Some previous works have been studied and summarized which deal with improving the efficiency of solar water heating system (SWHS) by changes in collector design with numerous enhancement techniques of heat transfer, leading to choosing the best option from among them for improving heat transfer. In addition, the research gap and the proposed potential improvements for future work have been given in brief.

Extensively use of air conditioning units is an important factor for global warming. Whether it is a building, industries or vehicle, air conditioning becomes very essential nowadays. For vehicles, as the air conditioning system (HVAC) directly takes power from the engine's main drive, it increases specific fuel consumption, which leads to environmental effects like global warming and ozone layer depreciation. The average cooling requirement of the normal passenger car is about 2.5 kW. So instead of using fuel to meet this cooling demand, we can use low-grade energy which is available on the engine exhaust/engine cooling loop. The thermal efficiency of most of the vehicles is 30% and the rest 70% goes ambient in the form of waste heat. This waste heat can work as an energy source for the vehicle HVAC system running by vapor adsorption refrigeration system (VARS). VARS uses low-grade heat energy to produce a cooling effect. As a working pair silica gel water has been proposed, which is chosen based on the required criteria. The system consists of a two-bed generator to get the continuous cooling requirement for the vehicle. In this work, thermodynamic analysis and dynamic analysis of the system have been carried out. From the numerical analysis, influencing parameter has identified. The parametric study has been performed using the numerical model using Simulink to analyze the performance of the system by varying different system parameters. For standard conditions (T3 = 80 °C, T1= Tc=35 °C and Te=7 °C), the COP, SCP and cooling effect of the proposed system observed 0.56, 319.45 W/kg and 3.67 Kw, respectively.

Safety in underground coal mines is a major challenge whenever the mine comprises of toxic gases. The risk of the presence of gas influences the overall productivity of the mines, which is a subject of concern to the mining industry. Therefore, there is a need for real-time monitoring of underground mine environment, so that the miners can be safeguarded in case of presence of toxic gases. In this paper, an attempt was made to evolve and validate an Internet of Things (IoT)-based gas monitoring system for monitoring underground coal mines environment, which includes multiple sensors for real-time measurement of different gases. The developed IoT-based gas monitoring system was tested and validated in the laboratory, under the controlled environmental conditions, for the measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH4) gases. Further, the test results were compared with the readings obtained by the digital multi-gas detector, which confirmed that the developed real-time gas monitoring system yields a good result.

The latest generation of Al-Li alloys is considered a suitable material for several production applications. Its high strength-to-weight ratio offer fuel-saving and payload in aerospace. Friction stir welding is assumed as a suitable fabrication process. It is a broadly flourishing joining technique due to economical, eco-friendly, energy-efficient. Sound weld joint achieves only when proper process parameters were applied. In this paper, input parameters were optimized using the Taguchi method based on Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array. Experiments have been carried out based on three process parameters with three-level. Mathematical models were developed to draw a relationship between process parameters and response (tensile strength of the welded joint) and found a model accuracy 99.8%. The improvement in tensile strength on the optimum condition was found 5.32%. Confirmation tests have been carried out, and found the confirmatory experimental results show a good agreement with predicted outcomes.

The objective of the paper is to investigate the effect of fin geometrical parameters of a heat sink, on the rate of heat dissipation for effective cooling purpose. The cooling rate is of paramount interest, especially in electronic systems accompanied with heating elements. Experiments were conducted on solid (S), through slot (TS) and dwarf (D) type of heat sink variants considering 9, 6, 5 and 3 fin configurations. Steady and natural convection mode was considered with a heat supply of 5 to 35 W range. Experimental analysis revealed that, heat sink (HS) with through slots and dwarf fins enhanced the rate of heat dissipation from the base surface of a heat sink. Maximum rate of heat dissipation (thus cooling) was exhibited by a heat sink with 6 fins TS, owing to the twin effect of bidirectional and bulk motion of air molecules along the fin surfaces as compared to the solid and dwarf type of heat sinks. Besides this, the fins with through slot reflected 41.7% material saving as compared to solid type of heat sink.

The manufacturing industry in several parts of the world finds it difficult to survive over the last financial year. Companies are now looking forward to new survival strategies to enhance productivity and profits. Leagile manufacturing will be one such strategy. Leagile manufacturing combines the concepts of lean production systems and agile production systems. Lean production aims to improve efficiency by eliminating waste while working with minimal resources at disposal. The agile production systems aim to quickly capture new and changing customers’ requirements using a flexible manufacturing setup. This paper proposes the use of leagile production as a competitive strategy for the manufacturing industry. The research uses Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to propose a conceptual leagile implementation framework following a practitioners’ perspective.

Variable inertia flywheel is an innovative approach for storing energy in a rotating system. It may replace the constant inertia flywheel effectively from the conventional rotating system. The variable inertia flywheel has less weight, and it has a great potential to adjust the moment of inertia according to the load of the system. The rotating system with variable inertia flywheel possesses less weight, more flexible and compact. Besides, the variable inertia flywheel has a significant role to reduce the vibration of the system. This paper presents various methods to obtain variable inertia flywheel. Additionally, a comparative study on the influence of various vehicle suspension parameters using variable inertia flywheel and a constant inertia flywheel is addressed.

Designing any rotational vibration energy harvester requires a comprehensive study of rotating sandwiched structures with piezoelectric layers and under external loading. In this article, the parametric investigation of a rotating piezoelectric bidirectional-tapering-bimorph beam comprises both width and thickness tapering central host and piezoelectric patches on its surfaces, under axial pulsating load is done. The mathematical modeling of the system is done using Hamilton’s equation. The effect of four boundary arrangements and different piezoelectric patch thicknesses, taper parameters, and rotational frequencies on the system’s response is studied with the help of parametric instability regions and static load graphs using the MATLAB program. The results demonstrate that an increase in the thickness taper parameter increases resonant frequencies of the structure significantly compared to the marginal rise with the width counterpart. The resonant frequencies decreased with an increase in the piezoelectric patch thickness up to a particular value; after that, the frequencies are increased. The pinned–pinned system provides the lowest first resonant frequency for any set of operating and system parameters; however, practical implementation of this system in the energy harvesting devices will be complicated.

In India, nearly 45 TWh of wind power has been harnessed over a decade using low to medium altitude winds. Winds at higher altitudes remain stable and have higher velocity; it can be harnessed by the use of turbines placed in buoyant filled balloons at higher altitudes. Studies suggest the usage of the convergent-divergent shape of the balloon can increase the velocity of air at the minimum area where the turbine can be placed. The buoyant balloon is designed in the shape of an airfoil. To reduce the effect of drag, different NACA 4-digit airfoils are taken for analysis in XFLR5 by varying thickness from 10 to 30% of the chord length, the maximum camber of 1–3% of chord, and maximum camber position in tenths of chord was varied from 1 to 9% with an increment of 1%. The results indicate that NACA 1730 shows the least coefficient of drag about 8.345E–03 at 0° angle of attack. The preliminary calculation has shown the volume of 19.16 m3 of hydrogen gas is required to make the entire Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) float in the air. The length of the airfoil to accommodate the volume is found to be 2.82 m. Numerical analysis of the balloon model is done using ANSYS FLUENT.

Natural convection through fins is utilized for thermal management of various engineering devices by dissipating the excess heat. The prominent influencing parameters for fins are its size and spacing. This paper is aimed at numerically investigating the heat transfer augmentation using pin fins in a rectangular cavity filled with air. Simulations are done to study the effect of prominent influencing parameters, namely fin spacing, fin height and Rayleigh number on heat transfer. It is expected that the present work will help in the design of fins.

Modern machining processes are now focused on machinability aspects of brittle and hard to machine materials. As per concerns raised in the field of machinability of brittle materials, the prime obstacle in the process is their hardness. Such carping issues can be suppressed through a bit increase in softness of the brittle materials. Therefore, heating of such material can raise the bar for the softness in such materials so as to their machinability. But the localized heating leads to a higher temperature gradient between heated and non-heated regions of the work material so as the thermal stresses in it which results into micro- as well as macro-cracks. Such deplorable issues can be solved through bulk heating of the work materials. Apparently, the comparisons of their softness can be examined through the scratch tests performed at different temperatures. In the view of above elucidation, 45S5 bioglass samples have been used for micro scratch tests as well as a portable heating setup is used to heat those samples. The temperature values are kept between room temperature (27 ℃) and 420 ℃ during the performed tests. Subsequently, traction force, coefficient of friction during the scratch tests and scratch images are compared as the elucidated outcome softness of the material. It is found that there is a significant reduction in traction forces and coefficient of frictions during tests with rise in the sample temperature.

Shifting trend of consumer, businesses and government compliances toward environment-friendly products and processes are now shifting the industries toward sustainable manufacturing process better known as “green manufacturing” (GM). Green manufacturing can be elucidated as the utilization of high-efficient materials in manufacturing that reduces harmful environmental impact. It confines critical manufacturing concerns such as complying with environmental laws and regulations, natural resource conservation, controlling toxic substance and the management of waste. This trend has led to increasing interest of researchers in green manufacturing. In order to facilitate those researchers, this research presents the bibliometric analysis of the research on green manufacturing from the year 2010–2020. The Scopus database was used to determine year-wise publications, most cited papers, most prolific authors, countries and institutions. Result of bibliometric analysis shows that research interest is continuously increasing as number of publication is increasing after 2015 continuously. This analysis provides a direction to those who are entering the field of green manufacturing research, providing information on which journals to consult, which authors, institutions and countries are most eminent, and keywords which was frequently used in the green manufacturing researches.

Three-dimensional printing is a rapid prototyping (RP) technology where layer-by-layer material addition is done in order to get the desired dimensional accuracy at a much faster rate. The paper looks into a very important property of a material, which is its tensile strength. In this regard, the thickness of each layer plays an important role for both conforming dimensional accuracy and to meet required mechanical properties. In this study, the effect of varying layer thickness for each specimen on the tensile strength of 3D-printed object, keeping every other parameter unaltered, has been experimented and analyzed. For this aim, three different printing layer thicknesses, i.e., 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3 mm, have been printed in three specimens of polylactic acid (PLA). The tensile strength of each specimen has been measured by a typical setup that includes a dial gauge and jig setup, which concluded about the applied load that the specimens can withstand before tearing. From the experimental outcomes and the geometrical design of the specimens, the tensile strength of each specimen has been determined. From the study, it is analyzed that ability of the PLA specimens to withstand the load gets significantly high with the lesser layer thickness.

Vocational education institutes provide skill-based courses that prepare students for the career in wide range of occupational fields, services and livelihood. The job market and community expect quality training and competent students from these institutes meet the demand of skilled labor. Adaption of total quality management principles that focused on continuous improvement will support the quality assurance at all levels, and the implementation depends upon various success factors. This paper focused on identifying the success factors relevant to vocational education, and these factors are ranked according to their importance. Analytic hierarchy process is applied for the ranking of ten identified success factors, and consistency check confirmed the evaluation results. The results demonstrated that senior management commitment is the most important success factor and adaptability to disruptions due to pandemics is also identified as another major success factor for the total quality management implementation.

The structural failure in the bridge decks often causes aerodynamic instability of the structures or discomfort to the travellers. This structural deficiency may also lead to a catastrophic failure or sudden collapse due to aeroelastic instability of the bridge deck. To understand the fluid–structure mechanism, computation fluid dynamics (CFD) is the best feasible alternative compared to wind tunnel testing which is expensive and time-consuming and required full-scale physical experiment. In this paper, one High Level Bridge in India of 46 m span of prestressed concrete single box girder bridge deck at mid span, located near Durgapur, West Bengal, has been studied with different geometric features and varying the distance between two single bridges’ decks in parallel case. Further, it has been analysed using incompressible computational fluid dynamics (ICFD) solver using LS-DYNA (R-7.1–2.16) version to evaluate various fluid parameters of the bridge deck under the influence of wind such as pressure contour region and fluid velocity region surrounding the bridge decks in single and parallel bridge decks with various gaps, displacements in X direction and Y direction, drag forces and lift forces. From the simulation, it is found that variation of pressure continues overall on the structure and maximum pressure accumulates at the sharp edge corner of the geometry.

The design method of long-span structure has been revolutionized in last decades, and aerodynamic and aeroelastic phenomenon has been increasingly prioritized to avoid cataclysm due to oscillation of bridge because of wind. The structures like long-span bridge show higher sensitivity toward wind turbulence even leading to disastrous collapse and (or) displacement of structure. Therefore, investigation of wind phenomenon plays crucial role in design of slender structures. Objective of the project is to obtain aerodynamic phenomenon, e.g., drag force, lift force and frictional force coefficient of a bridge at Durgapur, West Bengal, India, using incompressible computational fluid dynamics (ICFD) solver of finite element software LS-DYNA. The purpose is to analyze effect of axial vortex in the direction of span in 3D case through CFD simulation instead of experiment (wind tunnel test). CFD is an effective simulation technique with wide range of implementation. In this paper, one High Level Bridge near Durgapur, India, 46 m span, pre-stressed concrete single box girder bridge deck is perused with mid-span geometry in single, parallel bridge deck configuration at various wind attack angles with respect to X-axis (rolling) and Y-axis (yaw), with wind velocity as per clause 6.3, IS875, part III, 2015 in Durgapur. For this purpose, ICFD solver of LS-DYNA (R-4.3.5) is used where various fluid parameters (e.g., density, viscosity, velocity region surrounding the bridge deck) are evaluated. It is observed that the pressure and drag coefficient are reducing at regular interval with reduced wind attack angle. Further study concludes that drag coefficient varies irrespective of direction, i.e., windward or leeward of inclination angle.

Agriculture plays a significant role in Indian economic output as its contribution to GDP is 19.9%. Oilseeds are commercialized worldwide; hence, mechanization is required. Mechanisms and machines are available for these crops, but not scientifically designed. The focus of this research is toward small land holding farmers (<2 hectare). The reason is that irrigated land is reducing. An attempt has been made for small scale industries, as they can implement to develop and manufacture Arachis hypogaea decortication machine. Literature survey has been made for available machines. With field survey, based on voice of customer, the product specification is built. To fulfill the requirement, a number of concepts were generated. The best feasible concept is selected and supported with design calculations by adopting combination matrix method (CMM). The geometric model of decorticator was developed. The concave clearance of 9.5 mm was considered to be optimal. A blower was designed using back-faced impeller blades and was analyzed for velocity components. The feasible speed of impeller was 720 rpm. The CFD simulation of blower showed that air flow at outlet was 5.45 m/s, exerting a force of 1.97 N for separation of shells without affecting the kernels.

This work investigates the dynamic response of simply supported beam subjected to harmonic excitation by means of rotating unbalance. Passive viscous damper plays crucial role in controlling vibration response of system operating at resonance. Viscous damper containing CuO nanolubricants is used for suppressing the vibrations. Copper oxide (CuO) nanolubricants are prepared by two-stage process, which involves addition of CuO nanoparticles to lubricants and mixing by ultrasonication process for better dispersion stability. Orthogonal array technique is adopted for deciding set of experiments. Experiments are conducted at various speeds and nanoparticle concentrations. RMS acceleration values of the vibrating system are recorded for each experiment. Dynamic performance of the system is compared for various combinations of plain oil, nanolubricants and speed. Results show improved dynamic performance by use of CuO nanolubricants.

Water rotor blades may have three blades, and each cross-section of the vane is comprising a concave and convex profile and these vanes are extended around the drum between two disks. The main aim of the study is to investigate the water rotor by providing fillet radius at the vane edge. In the current study, one sharp vane edge and four smooth vane edges were analyzed using 2D CFD ANSYS Fluent Solver. The CFD model is validated by the values obtained experimentally published in the open literature. Based on a numerical study, pressure and velocity distributions around the water rotors were analyzed and discussed. The obtain results indicate that sharp vane edge water rotor, i.e., zero fillet radius model gives good performance than any smooth vane edge rotors. Furthermore, the sharp edge water rotor produces CPmax which is 0.17 at λ value 0.8.

With the development of human living standard and rapid industrialisation, global consumption of electricity has increased many times. By proper planning, modelling, and design, effective utilisation of renewable energy can be achieved with the aim to fulfil electricity demand. In this context, wind energy is one of the most efficient clean energy that has potential to be the frontrunner. However, designing and control of wind energy system are somewhat difficult because of erratic nature of wind. This paper presents an analytic approach to design small horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) blade and investigate its characteristic. Computational code has been developed in MATLAB to find out the parameters of optimal blade shape of three-bladed wind turbine (WT). The performance of WT obtained analytically from this procedure is compared and verified with several other works reported earlier in various articles. The proposed design removes some of the lacuna existing in past works and improves the performance of WT system.

In the present study, a numerical investigation is performed to understand the flow and heat transfer characteristics of hybrid nano-enhanced phase change material in a heat exchanger. A heat exchanger of cylindrical cross-section is considered for the analysis. Paraffin wax (RT50) is considered as the phase change material (PCM) into which SWCNT-MgO hybrid spherical nanoparticles are dispersed. The parametric study is performed by varying the Nusselt number and heat transfer coefficient over a wide range of nano-particle volume fractions and different temperatures. The melting and heat transfer characteristics of the phase change material are investigated using ANSYS Fluent V.20.0. The problem is modeled as an unsteady, two-dimensional incompressible flow, considering the effects of melting and solidification. This study has identified that the melting rate of the PCM was significantly influenced by varying the particle volume fraction and temperature of the inner fluid. The transient melting behavior of the PCM is investigated by plotting contours of temperature distribution.

In this project, the computational fluid dynamics approach is used to study the mixing in a stirred tank reactor. The main aim is to synthesize fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals involving multiple reactions which are critically dependent upon proper mixing and heat transfer in various zones of the tank domain and to increase the efficiency of the tank by providing visual imagery, simulations, and various data for support. To increase efficiency, there are many factors which are dimensions, number of rotors, rotor design, the type of fluids and materials and heat supply, etc. So, the design and scale-up are a great challenge for such reactors. Though there have been many measurement techniques developed over the years, they all have some limitations like a disturbance in the flow field and non-invasive techniques become inefficient in the ideal working environment. Through this paper, there is going to be a development and validation of the multiphase flow inside the mixing tank by varying impeller velocities. The eulerian method with k-ω turbulence is used along with the standard model in order to understand and eliminate losses.

In recent years, developments of automobile downsizing promote the developers to enhance the performance of current turbocharging technology. Turbocharger has become one of the key components in the automotive industry as it helps to enhance the engine performance. Due to drawbacks of conventional radial turbine used in turbocharging techniques, preliminary design of axial turbine was proposed, in order to achieve highest performance of turbocharger axial turbine and therefore enhance the engine performance. In the present study, the optimal design is made based on the NACA profile blade of a single axial turbine for the turbocharger system on solidworks. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is carried out, and the turbine design is modified based on the analysis results in order to attain optimum performance and minimal lag. The CFD analysis results of the velocity and pressure distributions identified the flow behaviour patterns such as flow separation, vortexes, and performance characteristics.

The identification of critical failure surface (CFS) in soil slopes with lowest factor of safety, i.e., min (FOS) is a constrained global optimization problem. In the past decades, many metaheuristic optimization algorithms have been proposed to assess the CFS in slope stability analysis with their advantages and limitations. The task of evaluation of associated FOS is performed using limit equilibrium-based Morgenstern-Price method and is treated as the objective function of the optimization algorithm. This paper presents the results of recently proposed Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (GOA) in soil slope stability analysis problems. Two soil slopes from earlier published literatures having different complexities have been analyzed using GOA. The observed results indicate that GOA technique used in the present study to minimize the objective function (i.e., the expression of factor of safety of the slope) has successfully achieved their goals. Statistical analysis of estimated min (FOS) obtained for different optimization parameters such as swarm size (N) and maximum number of iterations (kmax) have been reported in detail. It has been observed that the value of standard deviation (SD) of evaluated min (FOS) based on ten runs for all combinations of N and kmax is quite low, i.e., in the order of E-03 or less for both soil slope problem, which for all practical geotechnical purposes may be deemed highly satisfactory. Furthermore, the best min (FOS), the worst min (FOS) and the mean min (FOS) are also compared for all combinations of N and kmax based on ten independent runs.

This paper investigates the influence of end-milling process parameters such as spindle speed (rpm), feed rate (mm/min), and depth of cut (mm) on the response parameters such as surface roughness (SR) in μm and material removal rate (MRR) in cu. inches/min. The economical production is obtained by optimizing the process parameters such as cutting speed, spindle speed, spindle power, feed rate, flow rate of coolant, and depth of cut, since simultaneous optimization of the selected parameter in the case of the end-milling process is difficult. Initially, process modeling of SR and MRR of aluminum workpiece using end-milling machine has been performed by artificial neural network (ANN). The data set for the model is generated using the full factorial method. In the next phase of this work, two genetic algorithm (GA)-based multi-objective algorithms are compared to find out the best trade-offs between the two conflicting output parameters SR and MRR. Finally, the post-optimality analysis was executed to figure out the affair between the optimal machining parameter and optimal response parameter of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II).

In the present scenario, fused deposition modeling (FDM) process is one of the most widely used processes in additive manufacturing (AM). The dimensional accuracy of parts manufactured using the FDM process depends on many factors. This paper aims to investigate the most influencing factors which affect the dimension accuracy. Taguchi L9 Orthogonal Array (OA) design is used to perform experiments. Selected input parameters for experiment are layer thickness, infill style, and infill density. ASTM D638 Type IV specimens of ABS material have been printed on the Accucrafti250 + 3D printer as per design of experiment (DOE). Analysis of measured data, S/N ratio, and ANOVA is established to understand the most influencing input parameter for dimensional accuracy.

Ductile cast iron solidification has a vital role in the production of sound-quality castings. Due to complex solidification of ductile cast irons, thermal analysis is used to predict molten metal quality by analyzing the pattern for the cooling curve. Present work investigates the effect of inoculation on solidification of ductile cast iron through thermal analysis technique. The influence of addition of Ca, Ce-FeSi inoculant, on the solidification of ductile cast iron was studied. The data of eutectic undercooling, recalescence, and solidus temperature of uninoculated and inoculated melts was gathered from thermal analysis curves. Comparison of solidification parameters and microstructure of uninoculated and inoculated melt samples is done in this study. The inoculated melt samples have shown increased minimum and maximum eutectic temperatures and reduced recalescence than uninoculated ones.

Plastic garbage in reservoirs causes significant harm to water quality, aquatic life, and the entire ecosystem. This paper presents a low-cost water waste cleaning robot to collect floating waste in ponds and lakes, composed of commonly available low-cost materials requiring little human labor. This study aims to develop a robot that can collect floating trash in place of humans and evaluate the performance of the proposed system. This automatic system is constructed of floatable material and will float on the water to gather waste materials. A simple smartphone application is used to control the robot's cage-like framework, resulting in an extremely user-friendly interface. The waste trapped inside will have to be manually taken out of the bot before a second launch. Successful experiments have been made to collect different types of plastic waste in a small waterbody. The robot’s operating range and battery life are measured to ensure an efficient cleaning process in terms of time. Furthermore, the operator may adjust the robot’s speed to make movement simple and precise.

According to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, per hectare consumption of pesticides in India shows a significant increase year after year. India is the fourth-largest global producer of pesticides. Pesticides are spread in the farms by the farmers/operators without using safety equipment. There is no safety equipment available in the market, which could be used as a flow repellent. So, there is a need to develop a cost-effective design of pesticide flow-repellent helmet for farmers. An innovative and cost-effective design of the helmet is created, and the flow analysis is carried out using ANSYS-CFD software. The fan in the helmet is used to create turbulence which has a sufficient velocity to repel the incoming toxic pesticide flow. The flow simulation data from CFD is used to predict the flow distribution in the helmet. CFD results are analyzed, and the fan position is adjusted to obtain the required flow in the helmet. Based on the flow distribution, a prototype model is made to check the flow distribution in actual working conditions. The design is validated by carrying out several laboratory experiments. Solar energy panels are used to charge the batteries to run the fan.

The objective of the study was to address, in particular, the top management position of the MNCs and the need to gain a competitive advantage could be included in environmental policy decision-making processes. 119 Indian SMEs have recently been investigated in this study. Based on a green approach and a non-green approach, the companies surveyed were divided into two categories. To define the variables that distinguish between these companies, single variance analysis and a progressively discriminatory analysis were used. The results show that the comprehensive preparation of green practices is a critical factor in the differentiation between two business groups by combining the importance of formulating and implementing green practices.

Weld joint flaws can lead to part and assembly rejection, costly repairs, a significant reduction in performance under normal operating conditions, and, in the worst-case scenario, serious property, and life loss. In reality, flawless welding is nearly impossible, and in most situations, providing the relevant service functions is insufficient. However, early detection and segregation are still preferable. To test the quality of welded joints, several methodologies have been fabricated time and again. Non-destructive technology has essentially replaced the destructive methods of testing today, as this form of testing allows continuous and in-service inspection and is the basis for quality inspection in modern world. In our work, we use combination of digital image processing techniques and a well-established deep learning model for real-time detection of surface welding defects along with displaying the severity of each defect after their classifications. Moreover, the paper also shows how can this technology be used in an actual large-scale manufacturing plant in order to test the quality of welded joints. The objective is achieved using a hardware and software system that consists of a low-cost vision system for acquiring the image of a job, computer vision libraries, and a deep learning model for statistical analysis for quality monitoring.

In closed die forging the interfacial frictional condition between the dies and workpiece influences the energy requirement, defects formation, and load on the dies. Forging lubricants are used at the interface to reduce the friction. Breakdown of lubricant results in excessive die wear and die damage. Hence, it is important to select correct forging lubricant which minimizes friction. So, it is important to evaluate the friction coefficient of the lubricant. In this paper, ring compression test was done to find the coefficient of friction at high temperature using two different lubricants. Standard calibration curve was drawn by using DEFORM software. Standard mild steel rings were compressed to different reductions at forging temperature in hydraulic press. To evaluate the friction coefficient, percentage change in internal diameter of the rings was plotted against the percentage reduction on the standard calibration curve. It was found that the DELTA FORGE gives minimum friction coefficient.

The constitutive relationship in terms of stress–strain behavior at high temperatures is important to study and understand the flow characteristics of the material. Artificial intelligent techniques like neural networks (NN) can be used to predict the flow behavior of the material. In this work, flow stress modeling of a high-nitrogen austenitic stainless steel has been done using two different models, viz., artificial neural network (ANN) and fuzzy neural network (FNN). The models have been developed on MATLAB and trained by the experimentally obtained flow curve data. Flow curves at three different temperatures and three different strain rates have been considered for the present work. Both the models were analyzed and compared based on their accuracy in prediction and their ability to interpolate and extrapolate the flow stress values for temperature, strain rate, and strain. The results revealed that for the same amount of experimental data, the FNN can predict the flow stress at intermediate values of temperature. Also, the FNN model predicted more accurately at the interpolated strain rate than ANN. However, the FNN model is unable to extrapolate the flow stress values beyond the trained value of strain. At extrapolated strain rate and temperature, both the models are unable to predict the expected result.

The world is currently facing two significant problems associated with urban travel. The first problem is to reduce carbon footprints because of the high volume of vehicles running on conventional fuels. The next issue is the rise in traffic congestion, especially in mega-cities of the world. Clean and green energy is a way of the future. Therefore, interest in electric cars’ design and development has increased significantly in the last few years. However, they are much more practical in solving the first problem. There is an urgent need to reduce travel time by avoiding traffic congestion. Therefore, the world needs a clean, fast, and reliable method of urban transpiration. Personal air vehicles, with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability and batteries as an energy source, can address both concerns. It can also play a vital role in connecting the people living in remote and inaccessible areas to its nearest cities. Several startups and aerospace giants are under the exploration of feasible solutions. Ehang 184, Lilium, Kitty Hawk Cora, Joby S4, Vahana, and Volocpter-2X are potential personal air vehicles in advanced design and testing phases. This paper presents a crisp review of the design and development of personal air vehicles worldwide. There are some critical challenges in getting a feasible design of these systems. Moreover, necessary infrastructure development to support the required ground handling of these systems that are an integral part of urban travel mode needs to be well optimized. Therefore, the paper also focuses on the system’s design, development, and implementation challenges.

Seamless connectivity has become a necessity in a new era of technology. Yet, a sizable population does not have access to the internet and experiencing a cavity life. Therefore, several efforts are underway to provide uninterrupted communication to the people and incredibly remote locations; Project Loon is a classic example of similar attempts. High-altitude airships can provide an aerial platform that can be used to mount communication gears. These systems use buoyancy to remain airborne for a long time, thus providing an efficient solution to the problem. They are powered by solar energy harnessed through solar panels attached to the upper portion of the envelope conformal to the shape. The shape of the envelope is the largest contributor to the system’s structural weight. Moreover, the profile also drives the drag coefficient and net energy generation from the solar panel. Therefore, selecting the optimal shape of the envelope play a vital role in the design and operation of such systems. The researcher worldwide explored several profiles suitable for high-altitude airships, viz., GNVR, NPL, Wang, etc. Based on the given design requirements and deployment location, the selection of an optimal shape may vary. This paper presents a comparative study of the standard profiles based on the initial sizing. The effect of operational parameters on the final results is discussed in detail. The results can help the designer understand the significance of selecting the correct shape for the given design requirements.

In this work, Ti6Al4V alloy was clad on commercially pure magnesium substrate by laser cladding. The laser cladding parameters were laser scan speed and powder feed rate. Wear behaviors of the clad substrates were evaluated by a dry sliding wear testing on Ti-6Al-4V counter material by pin-on-disc method. The wear testing parameters like applied load and sliding velocity were varied by keeping sliding distance as constant. The experimental data were used to develop an optimized neural network model. Network models predicted that the clad deposition affects the wear behavior. The combination of lower laser scan and highest powder feed yields higher deposition compared to higher laser scan and lowest powder feed combination. The higher material deposition improves the wear resistance of the substrates. The experimental data confirms the network models prediction by showing the lower wear rate at 200 mm/min–10 g/min laser parametric condition which has higher clad deposition than lower wear rate at 300 mm/min–5 g/min condition with lower materials deposition. Overall, laser cladding of Ti6Al4V on commercially pure magnesium improves the wear resistance by ~75%.

Aluminium is one of the most abundant materials available on the earth surface. Aluminium alloys have vast applications in various sectors like manufacturing, automobile, defence, and aircrafts parts, etc. Aluminium alloys are divided into cast alloy and wrought alloys. Forging is a type of manufacturing process which is done to provide specific shapes to a raw metal, and it is basically classified on the basis of the temperature as hot forging and cold forging. This study reviews the effect of forging on mechanical and tribological properties of aluminium and its alloys and from all mechanical and tribological properties; hardness, tensile strength, and wear are taken into consideration in this study.

Machining with coated carbide tool of hard steel is one of the challenging jobs for any manufacturing industries. The hard turning process is one of the best options than other manufacturing process. The main issue in the hard turning process is the selection of the cutting insert with less cost. Coated carbide insert is the best alternative to the costly cutting insert. This present paper focused on the review on the machining of hard material with coated carbide insert and tries to empathize the crucial dispute associated with this process. Further, this paper focused the previous work on the effect of white layer in the hard machining. Also, the previous work on force modeling in the field of hard turning is highlighted.

In the present scenario, industries are more concerning about pollution-free environment, global warming, and endeavor to produce goods which causes less hazardous to the environment. Thermal-barrier coatings (TBCs) are a crucial method to protect the metallic parts of components against high temperatures of more than 1000 °C. Through the Thermal Barrier Coating provide extended life and excellent performance to components in the domain of aviation, automobiles, marines, and power generation by reducing the temperature of components by providing various thermal layers. These review works are divided into two parts: the first part is based on a critical review of thermal-barrier coatings materials used, coating process, the framework of TBC, challenges faced in TBCs, and detailed study of thermally grown oxides, and the second part is based on the effect of post-treatment on TBC and high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) coatings.

In metalworking industries, power generation, and aerospace industries, friction and wear are discerned as serious problems in mechanical moving machines that work in high-temperature environments. Wear and friction directly relate to vastly the manufacturing capital cost in the diligence. This paper furnishes a critical review on the effect of high temperature on high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF)-coated coatings including various designs’ approach in the environment of a high wear resistance, a low friction, eco-friendly atmosphere, for high hardness and residual stress. And lastly, applications and future trends of high-temperature coating materials are introduced. These developments in the field of coatings are generously offered to deepen the understanding of high-temperature tribological behavior as well as expanding toward the various practical applications.

Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology. This technology is based on creating a peer-to-peer network (P2P). As natural disasters and global pandemics expose severe functional vulnerabilities in these industries, key features backed by BCT such as decentralization, consensus mechanism, immutability, and smart contracts offer data integrity, traceability, and structured authorization through proof of work (POW), tokens, distributed ledgers, and encryption and can embolden to route some crucial problems—poor network management, loop in chains, frauds, misinformed structure, and biased authorization. BCT-supported start-ups with promising growth reports are examples to support the argument of blockchain establishing a sustainable economy that is both effective and resilient. Thus, the paper provides insights to the role of blockchain technology with respect to COVID-19 pandemic point of view.

Diesel engine development has been accelerated for performance improvement and pollution reduction as per current stringent emission norms. In this study, recognition of homogenous butanol blends in various volume ratios has been done to obtain effects of combustion, performance, and emission behavior in a diesel engine. At overall operating situations, the results show that increasing the butanol concentration in the mixed fuels boosted the brake thermal efficiency within considerable limits up to 7%. Also, high latent heat of alcohol results reduced in-cylinder temperature causing better combustion efficiency and lower unburnt hydrocarbon emissions (20 ppm downward) and higher value of NOx at peak load. This study endorses replacement of diesel with the ability of alcoholic fuel making butanol to be a viable solution for CI engines.

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a surface modification technique which has widely grabbed the attention by significantly contributing in the development of functionally graded materials with improved surface structure and enhanced mechanical properties. By using FSP, the modified alloys and composites have ultrafine-grained structure with surface hardened with or without using reinforcement particles. In this paper, the review of latest achievement in FSP on aluminum alloys, with surface treatment and with particle reinforcement, is done. It can be seen that by varying the various process parameters along with particle reinforcement, the mechanical properties such as tensile strength, hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, impact toughness have improved significantly.

The disposal of single waste plastic is becoming from worst to disaster due to its continuous increasing demand in the market. The majority of single-used plastic ends to landfill after its useful life that leads to several problems including air and water pollution. In the present research, the single-used plastic is converted into liquid fuel by the pyrolysis process. The waste plastic fuel (WPF) is mixed with petroleum diesel in equal volumetric proportion to test it on the engine. To enhance the combustion characteristics of the fuel, oxygenated fuel is added to the blend, and the performance and emissions characteristics of the unmodified engine are tested. The better properties of WPF compared to diesel fuels improve the brake thermal efficiency of the engine by 1% for all loading conditions. However, a slight increase in emissions such as CO and NOX is observed. Further improvement in the BTE is observed by adding a small proportion of n-butanol.