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

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Biological Sciences and Engineering

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Nature Reviews Immunology

A role for IL-17 in age-related macular degeneration

Cellular and Molecular Immunology

Th17 cells, pathogenic or not? TGF-β3 imposes the embargo

Voltage source inverters are an integral part of renewable power sources and smart grid systems. Computationally efficient and fairly accurate models for the voltage source inverter are required to carry out extensive simulation studies on complex power networks. Accuracy requires that the effect of dead-time be incorporated in the inverter model. The dead-time is essentially a short delay introduced between the gating pulses to the complementary switches in an inverter leg for the safety of power devices. As the modern voltage source inverters switch at fairly high frequencies, the dead-time significantly influences the output fundamental voltage. Dead-time also causes low-frequency harmonic distortion and is hence important from a power quality perspective. This paper studies the dead-time effect in a synchronous dq reference frame, since dynamic studies and controller design are typically carried out in this frame of reference. For the sake of computational efficiency, average models are derived, incorporating the dead-time effect, in both RYB and dq reference frames. The average models are shown to consume less computation time than their corresponding switching models, the accuracies of the models being comparable. The proposed average synchronous reference frame model, including effect of dead-time, is validated through experimental results. © 2013 IEEE.

Department of Electrical Engineering

2013 IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia, ISGT Asia 2013

Average modelling of a voltage source inverter with dead-time in a synchronous reference frame

Department of Physics

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru

Phase Behaviour of Supercooled Liquid Silicon

Syngas is being studied extensively as an effective alternate fuel for various applications in recent times. Syngas combustion offers significant challenges because of varying compositions and considerably low calorific values. Trapped vortex combustor (TVC) is an established design in gas turbine engine combustors utilizing the RQL (rich-burn quick-quench lean-burn) strategy for achieving stable combustion under various operating conditions and meeting stringent pollution norms at the same time. TVC design consists of a cavity in which a vortex is established where rich combustion takes place. The products then mix quickly with the main flow and then the ultra lean mixture undergoes combustion. Previous studies on methane combustion in TVC have shown that this concept helps to achieve a very wide operating range of equivalence ratios with low NOx and particulate emissions. A single cavity TVC rig is used to study the combustion and mixing phenomena. Preliminary experiments on syngas combustion in TVC have shown stable combustion even for very lean equivalence ratios ($\Phi$$\sim$0.1). However, the dynamics in the cavity seem to differ considerably from previous methane combustion studies. The flame is characterised by equivalence ratio which might mean that mixing in the cavity is minimal. To understand the cavity mixing, acetone PLIF has been employed. These results show that the fuel jet momentum plays a very important role in determining the mixing within the cavity. Fuel mixing increases with the increase in fuel jet momentum as also with the guide vane air momentum. Flame luminosity images do not show a flame at the center of the cavity possibly indicating a lack of cavity recirculation vortex. Further comparison between methane and syngas can be carried out by employing parameters like jet momentum ratio.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

11th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference

Experiments on stability of syngas combustion in a trapped vortex combustor

Previous studies on a single-cavity, compact trapped vortex combustor concept showed good flame stability for a wide range of flow conditions. However, achieving good mixing between cavity products and mainstream flow was still a major challenge. In the present study, a passive mixing enhancement strategy of using inclined struts along with a flow guide vane is presented and experimentally tested at atmospheric pressure conditions. Results show excellent mixing and consequently low values of the combustor exit pattern factor in the range of 0.1 and small flame lengths (5-7 times the main-duct depth). The pressure drop is small in the range of 0.35% and NOx levels of the order of 1-2 ppm are achieved. The flame stability is excellent and combustion efficiency is reasonable in the range of 96%. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is explained on the basis of in-situ OH chemiluminescence images and prior numerical simulations of the resulting complex flow field. The flow guide vane is observed to lead to a counterclockwise cavity vortex, which is conducive to the rise of cavity combustion products along the inclined struts and subsequent mixing with the mainstream flow. {\textcopyright} 2013 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Combustion Science and Technology

Mixing enhancement in a compact trapped vortex combustor

We analyze the utility of edge cracked semicircular disk (ECSD) for rapid assessment of fracture toughness using compressive loading. Continuing our earlier work on ECSD, a theoretical examination here leads to a novel way for synthesizing weight functions using two distinct form factors. The efficacy of ECSD mode-I weight function synthesized using displacement and form factor methods is demonstrated by comparing with finite element results. Theory of elasticity in conjunction with finite element method is utilized to analyze crack opening potency of ECSD under eccentric compression to explore newer configurations of ECSD for fracture testing. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Engineering Fracture Mechanics

Synthesis and application of weight function for edge cracked semicircular disk (ECSD)

Timber, being an environmentally friendly light-weight construction material and hence easy to handle, has been a popular material for the construction of light frame buildings. However, the inherent disadvantages associated with timber such as excessive creep, poor sound insulation, inferior stiffness and strength compared to other construction materials and limited fire-rating, among others, have limited its use as a structural material to low-rise buildings and relatively short spans. In this study, further conceptual advancement is made to a structural system called the 'timber-boxed concrete structural system'. This is envisioned to be a dual acting system utilizing the positive attributes of both dimensional timber and reinforced concrete. This system does not rely on composite action unlike the timber-concrete composite structural system, which heavily depends on the composite action between the constituent materials leading to higher construction and maintenance costs. A construction sequence is detailed for the proposed system which would ultimately result in a cost effective rapid construction practice. A metal stud stiffened timber-boxed reinforced concrete wall is also conceptualized. These walls will make the timber-boxed concrete structure stiffer, and this enables the construction of taller and larger structures. It is concluded that the conceptual system is ready for testing and implementation. Copyright © 2013 by Research Publishing Services.

Department of Civil Engineering

ISEC 2013 - 7th International Structural Engineering and Construction Conference: New Developments in Structural Engineering and Construction

Dual acting structural timber-boxed concrete system and metal stud stiffened timber-box walls-A conceptual development

AbstractMultidisciplinary design for construction is a complex and iterative process. Because conventional planning tools cannot model iterations, a matrix-based methodology called design structure matrix (DSM) has been developed. Although this approach has shown the potential to model and manage iterative design processes, there is no widespread application. It has been documented that the formation of the DSM is a key limitation to its practical application. Furthermore, the findings of an action research–based investigation on implementing the DSM approach on multiple construction projects suggested the formation of a drawing-based DSM rather than the conventional activity-based DSM to improve applicability. The study also proposed a structured methodology called design interface management system (diMs) to form the drawing design structure matrix. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of diMs methodology and its implementation on the construction design processes. The testing was conducted through a comparative study of two design cases of a large airport design process. The performance of the design management process of the test group that used diMs was compared with the control group that used existing design management practices. The data for the comparative study were obtained through document and questionnaire–based assessment criteria. The comparison of these assessment criteria shows significant improvements in the design management process for the test group. The basis for these improvements was further evaluated through multiple sources of evidences such as focused interviews, physical visits, open-ended interviews and participatory observations.

Journal of Management in Engineering

Case Study–Based Testing of Design Interface Management System

The closure of long equilibrated denaturation bubbles in DNA is studied using Brownian dynamics simulations. A minimal mesoscopic model is used where the double helix is made of two interacting bead-spring freely rotating strands, with a nonzero torsional modulus in the duplex state, κφ= 200 to 300kBT. For DNAs of lengths N=40 to 100 base pairs (bps) with a large initial bubble in their middle, long closure times of 0.1 to 100μs are found. The bubble starts winding from both ends until it reaches a ≈10 bp metastable state due to the large elastic energy stored in the bubble. The final closure is limited by three competing mechanisms depending on κφ and N: arms diffusion until their alignment, bubble diffusion along the DNA until one end is reached, or local Kramers process (crossing over a torsional energy barrier). For clamped ends or long DNAs, the closure occurs via this last temperature-activated mechanism, yielding a good quantitative agreement with the experiments. © 2013 American Physical Society.