(Chronicle note: This article contains news about Prof. S. N. Mahendra’s research in Linear Induction Motors. It includes additional information about the technology, research being done at our institute, etc.
We have published interview with Prof. Mahendra in the Interview section of this issue of Chronicle. Please refer to it for additional information.)
______________________
LIM system better than used in Delhi metro: BHU Prof
Varanasi, Nov 16: The Linear Induction Motor (LIM) rail metro system developed by the BHU can save over 100 crore per kilometre if adopted for the proposed metro project here in place of conventional metro system, used in Delhi metro.
"The LIM technology, if adopted, will prove to be 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than the Delhi metro," Professor S N Mahendra, Head, Electrical Engineering Department, Institute of Technology, BHU said.
The LIM system already running in Japan as a transport method has been researched by the scientists of BHU and awaits a proper consideration by the authorities concerned to apply the technology as a new form of metro system in the country.
"It is being researched upon as a mode of transport from 1977 at BHU and is a promising new technology, being better than the conventional metro system in a lot of ways," said Prof Mahendra.
He said the technology was ready for use in 1999 and it has been displayed at several national and international exhibitions successfully.
The Prof claimed the "Malviya Center for Development of Low Cost Linear Metro System" at BHU has done developed this tremendous technology but the government agencies working on the different metro projects in the country have overlooked this cheapest metro technology.
He said Rotary Motor system, which is being used in the Delhi Metro, amounts to huge energy loss and requires a regular maintenance.
LIM system once used will lead to a major cost reduction as the tunnel diameter required for this system is as low as 4 metres compared to 6.2 metres for the conventional metro system. Also, in the absence of adhesion driving and major rotary parts, the LIM system will require reduced maintenance which itself has become a major problem in the country.
The Linear metro is also said to be able to overcome slopes as steep as 6 per cent, which is not possible in any other metro systems.
Prof Mahendra said that if applied in Varanasi itself, a 20 Km long metro route under the proposed technology would cost something between Rs 3600 crores to Rs 4200 crores, which is cheaper than the estimated Rs 6000 crores under the rotary motor system.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had announced to support any modern transportation system for Varanasi during his two-day visit of the city in March this year and on the basis of the announcement, a metro rail project for the city is under active consideration of the authorities. _____________________________
Individuals & Agencies whose support is gratefully acknowledged
Professor M. Bhattacharyya 1971 (Former: Director IT-BHU, Vice-Chancellor Silchar Univ., Vice-Chancellor West Bengal Tech. Univ.): for initiating to linear induction motor subject during my M. Tech. Project.
Govt. of India 1973-77: For awarding the National Scholarship to Study Abroad to work under Prof. A. J. Ellison at the City Univ. London; have fruitful discussions with subject experts like Prof. E. R. Laithwaite and other faculty at the Imperial College of Science & Technology, London; visit LIM R&D establishments in the U.K., Switzerland & France on IEE & IEEE travel grants.
DLW, Varanasi 1979-81: In particular Shri K. P. Jairam, the then G.M., for the fabrication of 15:1 scale LIM propelled surface transport model operating over 33-m oval track.
Professor G. Rajsekar 1978: For making possible the above model and also for continued encouragement & support
MHRD/AICTE 1994-2000: For R&D Grants to develop LIM propelled transport system operating with 15-adult load on a 65-m meter-gauge track for demonstrating the technical feasibility
Prof. Hari Gautam 1996 (the then VC BHU & later Chairman UGC): For supporting creation of Malaviya Centre for “Development and Evaluation of Low Cost LIM Propelled Rail Metro System” in IT-BHU.
Shri Jagdish Upadhyay 1994-2000(Former Member Electrical Railway Board, Visiting Professor & Advisor AICTE project entitled LIM Propelled Rail Metro System): For giving a practical shape to LIM traction R&D activities and projecting it for its adoption in India.
Graduate, Post-graduate & Research Scholars 1977 till date: For assistance in the fabricating LIM powered working models of various applications to demonstrate principle of LIM propulsion, projects & dissertations.
(a) Adhesion is not a limiting feature in LIM propelled system. Hence track can be laid with steeper gradients. Typical grades achieved by Japanese Subway Association are 6-8% (compared to 3-4% possible with conventional system).
(b) Wheels fixed to non-rotating axle can rotate independently thereby improving the curve negotiating property of the vehicle.
Note: With features (a) and (b) the track alignment can tolerate sharper curvatures and steeper gradients. This helps to reduce the track length between two points thus permitting reduction in specific energy consumption even if it is considered that energy consumed for hauling the load remains unaltered
(c). In RIM based traction linear distance covered by one rotation of the driving wheel (L) is normally different than the wheel perimeter (pD). This results in slipping (for pD greater than L) and skidding (for pD less than L). However for negligible wear-and-tear of wheel and the track, as far as possible, pD should be equal to L. With LIM based traction this condition is automatically achieved because in this all the wheels are rolling-wheels.
(d). Tractive-effort in RIM based traction is produced at the common contact surface between the driving-wheels and the running-rails and that in LIM based traction it is produced at the common surface between the moving primary member and the secondary reaction-rail facing it.
Thus the tractive-effort producing area in the LIM based traction is far more than that in the rotary motor based traction system. Therefore, for the same demand in tractive-effort the stresses developed in the track (along the direction of motion) would be relatively smaller in the case of LIM based traction.
This special feature may be exploited to simplify the track design and achieve economies that would give an edge over the rotary motor-based traction system.
We are pleased to announce that Prof. S. N. Upadhyay and Prof. N. K. Mukhopadhyay have been awarded Fellowship (FNAE) by Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), New Delhi. Prof. S. N. Upadhyay is professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Director of our institute. Prof. N. K. Mukhopadhyay is professor in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering.
The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), founded in 1987, comprises India's most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines. The aims and objects of the Academy are to promote and advance the practice of engineering and technology, related sciences and disciplines and their applications to problems of national importance. INAE also encourages inventions, investigations, and research in pursuit of excellence in the field of "Engineering".
The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) honours Indian and Foreign nationals who are elected by "peer" committees in recognition of their personal achievements in engineering which are of exceptional merit and distinctive eminence in new and developing fields of technology. The Fellows on election to the Academy are entitled to use abbreviated title "FNAE".
The fellowship honour will be effective from January 1, 2009. There is no time limit, once conferred it goes with the name of the person for entire his life.
It is our honour to have both of them on the list of Fellows of INAE.
____________________
Prof. S. N. Upadhyay Prof. N. K. Mukhopadhyay
Deptt. of Chemical Engineering Deptt. of Metallurgical Engineering
(The information about Departmental activities is provided by Prof. P. Chakrabarti, Head of Department of Electronics Engineering. He can be contacted at: head.ece@itbhu.ac.in. Departmental website: http://www.itbhu.ac.in/ece/)
(Prof. P. Chakrabarti)
1. The department of Electronics Engineering is organizing the "2nd National workshop on Advanced Optoelectronic Materials and Devices (AOMD-2008)" during Dec.22-24, 2008. The program is sponsored by the IEEE and the Proceedings will be published by Macmillan India and available at IEEE Xplore. The program is being co-sponsored by DST, CSIR and DRDO (Chair: Prof. P. Chakrabarti and Co-Chair: Dr. S. Jit)
2. The other conference “Vacuum Electronic Devices and Applications (VEDA-2009)” is scheduled during Jan.8-10, 2009 (Chair: Prof. P. K. Jain).
3. At the Centre for Research in Microelectronics (CRME) we have been able to successfully develop a new plastic diode (Polymer based Schottky diode) in collaboration with the School of Materials Science & Technology, IT-BHU. The work has been published in IEEE Electron Device Letters (Ref. A.K. Singh, Rajiv Prakash, A.D. D. Dwivedi and P. Chakrabarti, "Electronic Properties and Junction Behaviour of Polyanthranilic Acid/Metal Contacts", IEEE Electron Device letters, vol.29, pp571-574,2008). We are in the process of developing a few more novel device prototypes using semiconducting polymers. We are awaiting the University clearance for filing the application for holding the patent rights of some of the products developed by us.
4. The Department has also started working on establishing a dedicated Centre for Research in Photonics Technology.
5. The University Grants Commission has sanctioned 15 Junior Research Fellowship positions in the Department under RFSMS (Research Fellowship in Engineering Sciences for Meritorious Students) scheme.
(Chronicle note: Below, please find a report on two workshops conducted by Varanasi IT-BHU Students' Chapter, The Institution of Engineers, India in campus. The first workshop was help on September 19, 2008 in collaboration with Neev Information Technologies, Bangalore. The second workshop was organized on November 11, 2008 which included talk on “The Four Decades of Microprocessors” by Sri. P. K. Mukherjee, Reader, Department of Electronics Engineering.
This report is prepared by Praharsh Sharma, B.Tech. Part-III, Department of Electronics Engineering and Convener of Varanasi IT-BHU Students’ Chapter, The Institution of Engineers (India). He can be contacted at: praharshsharmaster@gmail.com)
______________________________
a) Workshop by The Institution of Engineers, India on September 19, 2008
As per the planned activities for the year, for The Institution of Engineers (India), Varanasi IT-BHU Students’ Chapter, a workshop was organized on Friday September 19, 2008 in collaboration with M/s. Neev Information Technologies, Bangalore. M/s. Neev Information Technologies is a software consultant company founded by 2001 Batch Alumnus of IT-BHU.
In the workshop, information and guidance was provided by Mr. Saurabh Chandra, Co-founder/CEO, M/s. Neev Information Technologies (Mechanical 2001) and Mr. S. P. Vijay, Vice President (Engineering), M/s. Neev Information Technologies (Mining 2002). They spoke on ‘Experiences of Alumni Entrepreneurs’ to the students, enlightening them about different aspects relating to entrepreneurship. About 60-70 students attended the workshop which was held at G-7, Department of Mechanical Engineering during 6.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. The dignitaries from M/s. Neev Information Technologies also declared and felicitated the winners of their programming contest, ‘Code Warriors’ organized by The Institution of Engineers (India), Varanasi IT-BHU Students’ Chapter for the students of IT-BHU. The winners from final year were granted exemption (as award) in the written test on Sep. 20 2008, for placements for M/s. Neev Information Technologies and were directly invited for the interviews. The other winners were offered internship by Neev Information Technologies for their appreciable performance. They were also given mementos sponsored by Neev Information Technologies.
The dignitaries present were kind enough to answer the queries of all students present and guide the students as per their interests. The students found the workshop very interesting and profitable in relation to their career objectives.
The event was conducted and compered by Mr. Praharsh Sharma (B. Tech. Part-III, Department of Electronics Engineering). The team of the Institution of Engineers (India), IT-BHU Students’ Chapter expressed gratitude towards the officials of M/s. Neev Information Technologies and thanked them for their visit, time, support and enlightening deliberation.
b) Workshop by The Institution of Engineers, India on November 11, 2008
The Institution of Engineers (India), Varanasi IT-BHU Students’ Chapter has always presented the students of IT-BHU Varanasi, various technical events, talks, lectures and deliberations for the past many years. November 11, 2008 was a big day for I.E.(I), Varanasi IT-BHU Students’ Chapter as a talk on ‘The Four Decades of Microprocessors’ was delivered by Sri P.K. Mukherjee, Reader, Department of Electronics Engineering, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University at G-7, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IT-BHU during 05:00 – 07:00 p.m. The event was a grand success and was attended by over 250 students and dignitaries. The following dignitaries were present:
1. Prof. A.K. Agrawal (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
2. Dr. P. Bhardwaj (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
3. Dr. R.K. Mishra (Department of Electrical Engineering)
4. Dr. D. Dingh (Department of Electrical Engineering)
The conduct of the talk and highly conducive environment at the event was greatly appreciated by one and all. The enlightening deliberation was largely useful for the students of various departments, as it presented the various technologies and development in the field of ‘Microprocessors and Computing Units’ starting right from the very existence of ‘Abacus and Napier’s bones’ up to the most advanced units till date. The various stages for the last 40 years were the focus of the deliberation by Shri P.K. Mukherjee. He also discussed the future challenges and issues in the related field and pondered upon various parameters of the field of Microprocessors in the years to come. He concluded the gracious lecture with an interactive question-answer session for the audience during which he was kind enough to service the curiosities and doubts of students. He finally expressed his thankfulness towards Prof. A.K. Agrawal (Department of Mechanical Engineering.) and Mr. Praharsh Sharma (Convener, Varanasi IT-BHU Students’ Chapter, I. E. (I) for the invitation and conduct of the talk.
The event was conducted and compered by Mr. Praharsh Sharma. After the talk, Prof. A.K. Agrawal and Dr. R.K. Mishra mentioned the vote of thanks to Hon’ble P.K. Mukherjee for his gracious presence and deliberation, on behalf of Varanasi IT-BHU Students Chapter, I.E. (I), who acknowledged the same. Hon’ble P.K. Mukherjee was presented a memento by Prof. A.K. Agrawal on behalf of Varanasi IT-BHU students’ Chapter, I.E.(I) as a mark of gratitude and indebtness to him for his precious time, consent and concern for the talk.
Finally, Mr. Praharsh Sharma expressed gratitude towards all dignitaries present on the occasion and thanked the students for turning up in large numbers with deep interest for the talk. The event was audio and video recorded in order to add to the digital library of Varanasi IT-BHU Students’ Chapter, IE (I). The ‘PowerPoint Presentation file’ of the talk was given to interested students with due consent of Hon’ble P. K. Mukherjee who also thanked Mr. Shantanu Singh and Mr. Himanshu Shekhar (both B. Tech. Part-IV, Department of Electronics Engineering) for their help in the content of the talk and presentation.
The event was a grand success and established new horizons for the grade of endeavours of Varanasi IT- BHU Students’ Chapter, I.E. (I), in time to come.
(Prof. A. K. Agrawal (right) presenting memento to Shri P. K. Mukherjee (left) on November 11)
Four Decades of Microprocessors- By Mr. P. K. Mukherjee, Deptt. of Electronics Engineering. This 33 page document explains the development and history of Microprocessors.
(Chronicle note: This announcement report is prepared by Praharsh Sharma, B.Tech. Part-III Electronics Engineering student. He can be contacted at: praharshsharmaster@gmail.com.)
__________________
MAGNUM OPUS is the new Techno-Management Festival of IT-BHU which is scheduled to hold its debut edition during February 19-22, 2009. Below is the Notification made by IT-Directorate for the festival:
"The Director has been pleased to order that the annual festivals like 'TECHNEX' and 'OPULENCE' being held separately during the past few years will now be held together as a part of a single activity to be known as "MAGNUM OPUS". The Charles A King Memorial Fine Arts Exhibition, which was not being organised for some years, will also be organised as a part of this annual activity. This year the activity will be held during February 19-22, 2009. It has been further ordered that a Committee comprising Dr. P.K. Mishra, Reader, Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Dr. S.K. Shukla, Reader, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dr Pradeep Srivastava, Reader, School of Biochemical Engineering will coordinate this activity during the current academic session."
MAGNUM OPUS is born out of the fusion of Technex and Opulence, the erstwhile Annual Technical and Management Festival of IT-BHU. Magnum Opus bears a promise to go one step higher in harnessing the synergy of the merger and aspires to put forth, the best of both worlds. It comes with the expectations of being not just bigger but better. Magnum Opus would seek to create a perfect platform where in students can present their ideas and have a perfect blend of management and technical extravagance. Furthermore, Magnum Opus bears the purpose to give students of IT-BHU, a rare opportunity to interact with students from both technical and management backgrounds on the same platform, apart from interacting with accomplished individuals from the fields of both academia and industry. Creativity will be further enhanced with the rejuvenation of Charles A. King Memorial Fine Arts Exhibition. Both Technex and Opulence have, in the past played host to some brilliant individuals like Prahlad Kakkar, Prof. Kevin Warwick, Iqbal Ahmed, Abhijeet Avasthi and Debashish Chatterjee to name a few. Magnum Opus promises to keep the tradition going in the coming years as well and surge ahead to become one of the biggest festivals in the country.
(Prepared by: Devender Singh Maun, 2nd year Ceramic student. He can be contacted at: devender.maun@gmail.com)
IT-BHU has a long standing tradition of excellence in theatre and it was prolonged on November 9 and 10th. IT students thronged G-11 to witness the Fachcha Skit and dance competitions which were organized under the name of Kashiyatra prelude.The Fachcha Dance and Skit Competitions are annual fixture on institute’s extracurricular calendar. It serves to expose the first year students to show their talent and compete with each other for very first time since they stepped into BHU. There was barely any standing room left in G-11 as the budding thespians of the first year put on grand display on which whole ITBHU kept shaking their bodies.
Their mind blazing performances created such a magic onto crowd that they kept on dancing and just dancing. Final results of group dance competitions were not different from what has been expected. The ceramic engineering students, which won last year also kept their habit of ruling the stage; the story nowhere differs here as they were the winners. After ceramic, there were computer science students securing 2nd rank followed by electronics students.
As a whole evening of 30th September proved to be completely power packed during which every foot in ITBHU could not resist it from moving with the beats. The second juncture of this chain of enthralling events was showcased on 10th November when once again first yearites competed to prove their marvel in faccha skit competition.
There were 6 skits performed in all, all about 15 minutes in length. The skits were all based on original ideas and were of humorous or satirical genre. They encompassed a wide variety of subjects-from college life to social issues. The ovation that some of the skits received was deafening. Ceramic engineering continued its preeminence here also by emerging as winner with mining engineering, both were clubbed, followed by students of chemical engineering and students of electronics came third.
First year students worked for several days along with seniors from their branches to prepare themselves for the event.
We are pleased to state that two of our teams have won the preliminary round of GE Challenge, held at Bangalore in September 2008.
The first team was headed by Mohit Modi, 3rd year Integrated Dual Degree student of Biochemical Engineering. The team proposed breathe analyzing device that could detect TB under Enigma category.
The second team was headed by Chandan Kumar, 2nd year student of Electrical Engineering. His team proposed home energy solutions under Energy Saver category.
Mohit Modi (Biochemical IDD 3rd year) and his team for “Breathe Analyzing device for Detection of TB”
We were a team of 3 including me, Ankit Kumar Singh (Ceramic 3rd year) and Mayank Gupta (Pharmaceutics 3rd year). We and the other 2nd year team were among the youngest participants there). Our problem was to design a detection system for TB which would be fast, efficient and cheep. Also it should detect TB in early stages of infection. We proposed breathe analyzing device that could detect TB, very much like the one used to detect alcohol in the breath only much complicated. Our proposed idea was to use the VOCs (Volatile organic Compounds) that are emitted in the breath by the Bacteria and the changes that occur in the VOC composition of normal breath due to the disease. We detected this pattern by the use of an Electric nose. It is an array of sensors which use PCA (Principle Component Analysis-it is a technique to separate mixed signals depending on the contribution of individual signals in the final output) to analyze the output and pattern recognition algorithm to compare this with the ones already saved in the database.
Our main motivation in choosing this problem was that the existing techniques to diagnose TB is still mostly the sputum test which is like 150 years old and has very low efficiency and takes weeks to give the result (depending on the condition of the patient). also when we got down to actually solve it and came across the VOC concept and the possibility to diagnose such a dreaded disease by using just the exhaled breath it seemed like what can u get better than this. the idea was appreciated by the GE people but it failed short when we had to prove the feasibility of the idea, since we did not have any actual experimental data to support our idea, only research papers and other material which proved the feasibility theoretically. Hence we didn’t make it to the final two.
However the entire experience of being there is beyond explanation of being in a place where we witnessed the future in the making; where people are measured not by their publications, but by their patents and national awards. After all that's what GE is all about Innovative sellable Technologies. The place is very vast (it has its own small power production plant) huge labs with some of the great minds at work (people like us). it is a great place and for all the researchers and innovators out there it can top your dream career options list any day. Only one downfall with it all was that the technologies that GE manufactures there were not to be complimented in India but for the European and American Countries.
My request to all the students of IT is to go thru the site and be prepared for the next Edison challenge and bring home the trophy this time (did I mention that there was prize money of Rs. 5 lakhs).
Chandan Kumar (Electrical 2nd year) and his team with “Home Energy Solutions”
Following is the report from Chandan:
1. We came to know about the contest through the poster which was hung in our depts. We just thought that it would be a nice experience to participate at least to get some experience.
2. Out of the four topics provided by GE Challenge, we chose "home energy solutions" as we thought it was easy. But I would like to add that it got tougher as we harrowed through the task. The backbone of our solution was TPV or thermo photovoltaic - just solar cells which work in near Infra-red region and are hence suited for conversion of thermal radiations. We used it in a stove top attachment to use up waste heat generated during cooking and used that to generate electricity.
3. Advice for students: What you need is not castles in the sky but soil under your feet. We got so far on the basis of our idea. The mistake was that we didn't have a real life prototype to back it up (kind of impossible in our case at this level). Second thing- yes, the topics were hard (somewhat boring) but then again they were the same for all of us. So just chill out and take the leap. It will work out on its own-that's what we did.
4. Prize money: we didn't get any hard cash but were reimbursed AC 2nd tier for our trip back and forth and also we got to see their John F. Welch Technology Centre and it really was overwhelming. Such industry exposure at the fortune 500 company and voted "Best company to work for" was more than fabulous. We got to experience a company at the cutting edge of technology. You just can't beat that. It was really nice to know that we were probably the youngest team that made through the preliminary five.
We are grateful to our mentor, Dr. R. K. Mishra, Reader in Electrical department, who helped us achieving the success.
_________________________
Abstract of the project “Home Energy Solutions “ for GE Challenge Competition
Everyday countless homes consume hundred's of units of electricity. They also receive other types of untapped energy such as wind energy, solar energy, etc. Of the total energy used, needless to say a lot is lost - be it the wasted heat, inefficiency losses or just plain unnecessary use. We have say mobile chargers idling away, long after their work is done, laptops and computers staying on all day long, all the while their vents spewing gusts of hot air, and of course the loss which we are interested in- waste cooking heat. It does seem strange how so few ideas have sprung up in these matters.
The central theme of our report is providing and justifying a viable idea which can be implemented. The challenge which we have taken up is providing an efficient home energy solution consisting of a portable system which can utilize the usually "wasted" energy. Also it is required that we do not make any system alterations in the existing systems. Our aim was to get at least 20 W-h for one hour.
We have chosen to develop a solution based on utilizing the waste heat from cooking. Some factors which influenced our choice were:
1. Generating power from renewable sources is an all too common approach. We wanted to have an innovative approach to this problem.
2. Energy systems like wind in particular and solar to some extent require extensive changes to be made to the aesthetics of a building. Also wind generators are bulky.
3. Also the guiding principle was to develop a single portable device. A potpourri of systems combining all the aspects of "wasted" energy was not an option.
The concept of using waste heat from cooking was justified on the basis:
1. This was an altogether novel approach.
2. High temperatures are involved so our system can have a higher efficiency.
2. Heat losses are high in cooking, so we have enough "starting material."
The system which we have developed is based on TPVs (thermo photovoltaic). In brief it consists of a cylindrical device which is to be fitted on a burner. The cylinder consists of an innermost cylinder of Tungsten (emitter), whose purpose is to take the incident radiant energy and transmit it at wavelengths which are optimal for the array of Ga -Sb (Gallium –Antimony) photovoltaic which follow. Between the emitter and the PV array is a dielectric mirror (filter) which reflects back to the emitter wavelengths which are not suited to the PVs. This is followed by the last layer of insulating material.
_________________
To view PowerPoint show of the GE Energy Challenge, please click here
view in one page and print
