Information Pasteboard
Weekly reports of meetings at NAL, snippets of R&D activity, conference announcements and other features of popular interest
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News and Events #IP 957 24 - 30 Jan 2011 Brief Concept Note on the CSIR Tableau - From Generic to Genomic Medicine CSIR, established in 1942, is an ensemble of 37 state-of-the-art institutes involved in scientific and industrial R&D ranging from aerospace to ocean exploration, from micro-electronics to structural and environmental engineering, from smart materials to mechatronics, and from petrochemicals to healthcare. The Tableau conveys the importance of knowledge-intensive contemporary R&D in building national capacity to deliver affordable health care for the world.
CSIR-NAL at AERO INDIA 2011 Like in the previous editions of AEROINDIA this time also CSIR-NAL is participating in the forthcoming AEROINDIA: 2011 to be held on 9-13 February 2011 at Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bengaluru. CSIR-NAL exhibition stall is located in Hangar B stall # B10. CSIR-NAL’s HANSA aircraft will participate in the static and flying display. For General information - Tickets are available from 27th Jan 2011 at the following State Bank of India Bengaluru Branches - ADE, Electronics City, Indiranagar, JP Nagar, Jalahalli, Jayanagar II block, Koramangala, Kumara Park, M G Road, Malleswaram, Nagar, Rajajinagar V block, Richards Town, White field, Yelahanka New Town.
Dr. D.M. Rao passes away Dr. D.M. Rao is no more; we deeply regret the sudden demise of Dr. Rao, a great scientist, a researcher, an entrepreneur and an engineer of versatile generous and a great human being. Dr. D.M. Rao, 78, Former Head of NAL’s Aerodynamic division (1960 - 1975) passed away on December 29, 2010 in Hyderabad. Dr. Rao joined NAL as a scientist and grew to become the Head of the Aerodynamic Division, and lead the effort in realizing the 4 Ft. trisonic wind tunnel. Later he moved to NASA Langley Research Centre, USA, and subsequently co-founded Vigyan Research Associates. Dr. Rao as an excellent engineer had flair for experimental research work who worked with great energy and dedication. Realizing his abilities, he was invited in the year 1960 by late Dr. P. Neelakantan, the founder Director of NAL, to lead a team of Aerodynamicists and to establish the 4 ft. trisonic wind tunnel at NAL. After a few exhilarating years of engineering, the first blow down of the NAL wind tunnel reverberated across the Belur campus on May 29, 1967. Dr. Rao had several US patents for his aerodynamic devices he invented: he created and tested a device for vortex generation for simulating the maneuverability under high angle of attack. He was a fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences and Associate Fellow of AIAA, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is survived by his wife Dr. Padma, his second son Ravi and grand daughter Emily. We all join in praying the almighty to let his soul rest in peace. #IP 956 17 - 23 Jan 2011 ICC-CFT 2011 ConferenceThe International Conference on “Composites for the 21st Century: Current & Future Trends” was jointly organized by the Indian Institute of Science, North Carolina A&T University and ISAMPE (As National Conference on Composites INCCOM-9) during January 4-7, 2011, at National Seminar Complex, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The conference was preceded by two courses: one on “Analysis of Composite materials and Structures” by Prof J.N.Reddy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University USA; and the other on “Thermo-set Polymer Nano Composites - Processing, Fabrication and Characterization” by Prof. K. Shivakumar and Dr. G. Swaminathan, Centre for Composite Materials Research, North Carolina A&T State University, USA. The inaugural session of the conference was held at the J. N. Tata Auditorium. The welcome address was delivered by Prof. M. S. Bhat, Chairman, National Organizing Committee, Department of Aerospace, IISC. The Chairman of the Conference Dr. A. R. Upadhya, Director NAL, spoke on Prof A.K Rao in whose memory the Conference was dedicated. Dr. Yapa Rajapakshe, Office of the Naval Research (ONR), USA, spoke about the genesis of the Conference. He highlighted the collaboration between NC A &T and IISc also supported by ONR, and the suggested the coming together of the composite community in India with those of USA. The Chancellor of the North Carolina A&T State University, Dr. Harold L. Martin, Sr., congratulated the Organizers of the Conference and encouraged the participants to make use of the opportunity for greater collaboration and global partnerships. Dr S. Sankaran, President ISAMPE, expressed delight that the Conference was being jointly organized during the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the Society. Prof. B. Dattaguru, former Chairman, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IISC, briefed about the Conference. Prof. Balakrishnan, Associate Director, IISc, inaugurated the Conference and narrated some inspiring interactions during his association with Prof. A. K. Rao. The scintillating lecture “An overview on Composites - Indian Scenario” was delivered by Dr. Deepankar Banerjee, former CC R&D, DRDO. Prof. S. Gopalakrishnan presented the Vote of Thanks. He acknowledged the support of ONR, Asian office of Aerospace R&D, office of Scientific Research, Indian Air force, ISRO, CSIR and DRDO for supporting the conference conference. He also thanked the Platinum, Gold, Silver and other Sponsors and other advertisers. The Inaugural session was followed by a Cultural program. The technical sessions were held during January, 5-7, and spread over four Plenary, Thirty one Technical sessions followed by an Industry session. The conference covered nano-composites, multi-functional materials, computational modeling, non-destructive evaluation, dynamic behavior, structural health monitoring and composites applications. Separate sessions were held on Fatigue, fracture and damage tolerance, high-temperature composites and manufacturing techniques. User-industry based sessions were held for composites for marine and off shore structures, bio-composites in medical surgery and composites for power sector. In a special industry session, presentations were made by Dassault Systemes on analytical software, Larson & Toubro on their composite activities and Composite manufacturing activities at HAL. A souvenir was brought out on this occasion containing many articles: “Advanced Composites in Aviation - Indian Experience” by Dr. Kota Harinarayana; “Composites for Launch Vehicles by Sri M. Enamuthu”; “Composite products in Missile Systems” by Smt. G. Rohini Devi”; “Composite and Advanced Composite Materials for Hydrocarbon Industry” by Dr. P. Kumar, and “Composite Manufacturing Activities at HAL” by Sri. S. Sadagopan. The souvenir also contained Messages and advertisements by the Sponsors. Dr. V. K. Aatre, Former DG, DRDO Chaired the concluding session. It was recalled that there were 275 registrants for the conference; 50 participants for the course on Analysis of Composites, and 30 for course on Nano composites. It was noted that there were many good presentations from young researchers. Dr. Y. Rajapakshe expressed happiness over the successful conduct of the Conference; he invited the researchers present for the conferences being regularly organized by Office of the Naval Research. Dr. A. R. Upadhya, Chairman of the conference, hoped that the conference had given an opportunity for future collaborations, and thanked all the Organizing committee members for their help and cooperation for successful conduct of the conference. Prof. S. Gopalakrishnan profusely thanked Prof. B. Dattaguru for his excellent guidance in conducting the conference. C Divakar International Conference on Composites for 21st Century: Current & Future Trends - http://www.icc-cft2011.com/
#IP 955 10 - 16 Jan 2011 The 98th Indian Science Congress The 98th Indian Science Congress (ISC) was held at SRM University in Chennai from January 3-7, 2011 with the theme “Quality Education and Excellence in Science Research in Indian Universities”. The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in his inaugural address stressed that a university is the vital link in the chain of science teaching and research, and unless we strengthen the educational system we could never hope to achieve excellence. Encouraging scientists to think ‘out of the box’ for advancement of the country, PM announced 2012-13 as the ‘Year of Science’, and the next decade as the ‘Decade of Innovation’; the year 2012-2013 also happens to be the centenary year of the ISC. Referring to the theme of the ISC, Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD, S&T and IT in his key note address said that his Ministry is working on the concept of Navratna Universities or an “Indian Ivy League”, like the public sector “Navratnas”, which aims to nurture these select universities by generous financial support, freedom in accessing external funding and total autonomy. Initiating discussion in the first plenary session of the 98th ISC, Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Scientific Member, Planning Commission, stated the thrust areas of the science policy component of the 12th FYP would include solar energy, sustainable agriculture and Himalayan geology. The 12th FYP would focus on transforming India from poor economy status country to middle economy status country, and by the end of the plan period aims to achieve the per capita income of USD 7000. The key question is, he said, “How the scientific community is prepared to respond to these challenges” The Science Exhibition ‘Pride of India - Frontier Science & Technologies’ was one of the major events of the 98th ISC. The prominent developments, major achievements and the significant contributions to the society, predominantly of Indian Science and Technology, were showcased by leading scientific institutions, Government Departments, etc. CSIR had put up an impressive pavilion at the Science Exhibition under the themes CSIR-800/Agriculture, CSIR-800/Healthcare, Engineering Infrastructure/Mining, Mineral & Infrastructure, Leather/Ecology & Environment, Energy/Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Strategic and Aerospace. The exhibition showcased CSIR’s scientific & technological developments under these themes and their interventions to the benefit of society and nation. Strategic & Aerospace theme was lead by CSIR-NAL which attracted large number academicians, students including school children. The five-day scientific event at the SRM University hosted Seventeen plenary sessions and Fourteen sectional programmes. The plenary sessions had special lectures by six Nobel laureates attended by more than 8,000 delegates. The plenary sessions deliberated on topics of significant importance to the society at large including enhancing academia-industry interactions, minimizing and managing waste, climate change, energy security, advancements in cancer treatments and the like. R Venkatesh
Photo and photo collage designed by Team Photography, KTMD, NAL #IP 954 3 - 9 Jan 2011 Structural Health Monitoring of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Fibre Optic Sensors Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) technology has become increasingly important as an approach to increase the safety and reduce the maintenance costs of aircraft structures. Affordable advanced miniaturized sensors and continuous improvement in data processing technology combined with powerful hardware and software approaches have allowed this technology to become an integral part of such structures. The key to an effective SHM system for aircraft structures is not only the appropriate sensor selection but also the processing of the sensor data to predict the flight load and the damages in the structure. CSIR-NAL has been working for the last eight years in this area in order to realize a fully online SHM system so as to enable a paradigm shift from ‘Periodic Maintenance’ to a ‘Maintenance on demand’ philosophy. CSIR-NAL, Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a DRDO laboratory and IMOD (Israeli Ministry of Defence) jointly conducted flight trials on ADE’s Unmanned Air Vehicle Nishant (N15-32) on October 28, 2010 at Kolar Airfield in which this technological breakthrough has been achieved. ‘Structural Health Monitoring technology’ has been developed for monitoring of structural health parameters while the UAV is in flight. This break-through enables the structural health of aeronautical structures to be monitored, so that online health can be assessed continuously and corrective action, if needed, can be taken. This also enables the UAV to be flown without unnecessarily grounding them. This is of immense strategic importance from considerations of readiness of the fleet and safety. In order to realize this overall objective the principal factors considered were: 1) Evaluation and adaptation of the embedding technology of the Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors, 2) Connectorisation and Routing Issues – Structural Integrity and Process Compatibility, 3) Ruggedized flight worthy Instrumentation for measuring large number of FBG sensors at adequate high scan rate and 4) Testing and development of load detection methodology for the data obtained from flight trials. Figures 1(a) and 1(b) show the FBG sensor instrumentation comprising of FBG interrogator, on-board rugged computer and battery on mounting fixture and Nishant’s payload area respectively. These technologies developed have led to the successful flight trial. Figure 1(c) shows the Nishant UAV during flight. Initial analysis of the In-flight data acquired indicates that the system has worked very well and all the important maneuvers have been successfully captured by the embedded FBG sensors during the flight. Figures 2(a) and 2(b) show strain variation during launch and landing as measured from one of the embedded FBG sensor. Figure 2(c) shows the in-flight strain variation during cruise operation of the aircraft at different altitude levels. Detailed analysis of the flight data is in progress. Further intensive work, which will address all the issues which include telemetry, robust damage detection algorithms and the like over the next couple of years, should lead to a fully online SHM system This is indeed a historic moment as this is probably the first flight trial of an SHM system on an UAV. This is also the successful culmination of a joint collaboration between India and Israel under the I2MC (Indo-Israel Management council) Programme of DRDO. In this major effort, NAL and IMOD were responsible for developing all the SHM technologies towards the realization of an online SHM system and ADE played the pivotal role of assembly of the SHM system onto the UAV and also in the conduct of flight trial. Ramesh Sundaram
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