Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

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IIT Palakkad

This study is contemplation into prevailing BIM (Building Information Modelling) development practices, especially at the pre-maturity level. Firstly, the authors investigate the incentives that are set based on quantitative techniques and illustrate that rational models could not assist practitioners to make decisions on BIM adoption. Secondly, the survey-based methodology, which is predominantly used to assess industry readiness, was also reviewed to evaluate the amount of attention given towards externalities, such as procurement, policy, technical and organizational environments-which have a greater influence on BIM adoption. Further, the authors argue that the externalities are given a minimum consideration under the prevailing assessment criteria. The 'contextual-reflection' is used to describe externalities and a qualitative study was done in the South African context to evaluate the contextual reflection comprehensively. Integrating the findings with the Technology Adoption Model and Bew Richard BIM Maturity Model, the authors suggest a conceptual framework at the end of this study which could be repeated successfully in other contexts to evaluate industry readiness in a holistic manner.

Department of Civil Engineering

World University root node

Creative Construction Conference

Measuring BIM readiness with comprehension at the pre-maturity

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is utilized to treat hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from wastewater and to generate electricity simultaneously. The Cr(VI) is bioelectrochemically reduced to non-toxic Cr(III) form in the presence of an organic electron donor in a dual-chambered MFC. The Cr(VI) as catholyte and artificial wastewater inoculated with anaerobic sludge as anolyte, Cr(VI) at 100 mg/L was completely removed within 48 h (initial pH value 2.0). The total amount of Cr recovered was 99.87% by the precipitation of Cr(III) on the surface of the cathode. In addition to that 78.4% of total organic carbon reduction was achieved at the anode chamber within 13 days of operation. Furthermore, the maximum power density of 767.01 mW/m2 (2.08 mA/m2) was achieved by MFCs at ambient conditions. The present work has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using MFCs for simultaneous energy production from wastewater and reduction of toxic Cr(VI) to non-toxic Cr(III). © IWA Publishing 2015.

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Water Science and Technology

Hexavalent chromium reduction and energy recovery by using dual-chambered microbial fuel cell

Department of Mechanical Engineering

24th National Conference on IC Engines and Combustion

Numerical studies on Trapped Vortex Combustor with Syngas fuel

We obtain new universal statistical properties of heavy-particle trajectories in three-dimensional, statistically steady, homogeneous, and isotropic turbulent flows by direct numerical simulations. We show that the probability distribution functions (PDFs) P(φ), of the angle φ between the Eulerian velocity u and the particle velocity v, at a point and time, scales as P(φ) ∼ φ−γ, with a new universal exponent γ ≃ 4. The PDFs of the trajectory curvature κ and modulus θ of the torsion ϑ scale, respectively, as P(κ) ∼ κ−hκ, as κ → ∞, and P(θ) ∼ θ−hθ, as θ → ∞, with exponents hκ ≃ 2.5 and hθ ≃ 3 that do not depend on the Stokes number St. We also show that γ, hκ and hθ can be obtained by using simple stochastic models. We show that the number NI(t,St) of points (up until time t), at which ϑ changes sign, is such that nI(St) ≡ limt→∞ NI(tSt) ∼ St−∆, with ∆ ≃ 0.4 a universal exponent. t © TU Delft.

Department of Physics

Proceedings - 15th European Turbulence Conference, ETC 2015

Universal statistical properties of inertial-particle trajectories in three-dimensional, homogeneous, isotropic, fluid turbulence

In this work, a simple and efficient numerical approach to determine the shape of the minimum-drag axisymmetric forebody in inviscid supersonic flow with an attached shock constraint has been described. Taylor–Maccoll equation in conjunction with the tangent cone method is employed to estimate the pressure drag coefficient which is also chosen as the cost function. The forebody geometry is parameterized using a Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) curve whose control points are the design variables for optimisation using the steepest descent algorithm. Numerical studies demonstrate that the optimal forebody geometry for a given length and base radius has as much as 15 % lesser drag, depending on the Mach number than a cone of the same fineness ratio and that the convergence to the optimal solution exhibits a relatively weak Mach-number dependence. © 2014, The Institution of Engineers (India).

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series C

Optimal Forebody Shape for Minimum Drag in Supersonic Flow

The dynamic analysis of wind turbine drive train is presented in this paper. A typical wind turbine drive train consists of a rotor, gearbox and generator. The dynamic modelling of epicyclic gearbox that exists in wind turbine is challenging due to the fact that it has both rotating and orbiting gears. The dynamic equations of motion are obtained based on the rigid multibody modelling with discrete flexibility approach by Lagrange's formulation. The dynamic model accounts for the time varying gear tooth mesh stiffness, linear stiffness of bearings and torsional shaft stiffness. The aerodynamic torque that a wind turbine drive train subjected to, is modelled based on the simplified method for load calculation in wind turbine, Danish Standard DS472. The characteristic load value acting per unit length at the two-thirds length of the blade is used for calculating the total load of the torsional moment. The vibration signals that are obtained from wind turbine drive train are nonlinear and nonstationary in nature. This is due to the fact that the applied torque load on drive train is nonlinear and nonstationary in nature. The coupled dynamic model of 18 degrees of freedom is solved for responses in time and frequency domains for some nonstationary wind load realizations. The dynamic responses of the system, contact forces between gear tooth pairs in time and frequency domains are obtained numerically. The study envisages that this dynamic model of wind turbine drive train is very useful for subsequent studies on condition monitoring. © IMechE 2014.

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science

Dynamic analysis of wind turbine drive train subjected to nonstationary wind load excitation

Research involving the interaction of magnetic field with various engineering process have started gaining attention in recent years. Magnetic field has been used to improve various manufacturing processes or alter the physical conditions to generate a favorable output. Prominent applications of magnetic field are in the areas of mixing of fluids, fabrication of nanoparticles and weld confinement. A major challenge so far has been to generate a magnetic field and identify regions of uniform flux. This paper presents a systematic study of various parameters affecting the magnetic field like magnetization orientation and number of magnets. Furthermore, different physical arrangements of magnets are evaluated using finite element simulation to generate magnetic field. Regions of uniform magnetic field are identified using these simulation results. These results can be used for further applications requiring uniform magnetic fields. © 2015 Hindustan University.

Proceedings of 2015 International Conference on Robotics, Automation, Control and Embedded Systems, RACE 2015

Optimization of parameters for uniform magnetic field

Biological Sciences and Engineering

Journal of Rheumatology

Erratum: Intravenous immunoglobulin expands regulatory T cells in autoimmune rheumatic disease (Letter) (Journal of Rheumatology (2012) 39 (450-452))

Despite promising clinical trials, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) therapy in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) has met with uncertainties that might be attributed to small patient cohorts, heterogeneity in the patients, dose of IVIg, or the duration and window of treatment. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trends in Pharmacological Sciences

IVIg for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: Promises and uncertainties

Cellular and Molecular Immunology

Intravenous immunoglobulin-mediated expansion of regulatory T cells in autoimmune patients is associated with increased prostaglandin E2 levels in the circulation