Harish C. Das

Comparison of CFBP, FFBP, and RBF networks in the field of crack detection

The issue of crack detection and its diagnosis has gained a wide spread of industrial interest. The crack/damage affects the industrial economic growth. So early crack detection is an important aspect in the point of view of any industrial growth. In this paper a design tool ANSYS is used to monitor various changes in vibrational characteristics of thin transverse cracks on a cantilever beam for detecting the crack position and depth and was compared using artificial intelligence techniques. The usage of neural networks is the key point of development in this paper. The three neural networks used are cascade forward back propagation (CFBP) network, feed forward back propagation (FFBP) network, and radial basis function (RBF) network. In the first phase of this paper theoretical analysis has beenmade and then the finite element analysis has been carried out using commercial software, ANSYS. In the second phase of this paper the neural networks are trained using the values obtained from a simulatedmodel of the actual cantilever beam using ANSYS. At the last phase a comparative study has been made between the data obtained from neural network technique and finite element analysis.

Effect of Fiber Content on Abrasive Wear Behavior of Date Palm Leaf Reinforced Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone Composite

The effect of fiber contents on wear behavior of date palm leaf reinforced polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP/DPL) composites has been experimentally investigated. The test samples with fillers in 10, 20, 30, and 40% based on weight of fibers were prepared using injection molding. The optimum fiber content (i.e., 26 wt%) for maximum mechanical strength of the composites was determined by regression analysis. The dry sliding wear tests were conducted for each composition at different sliding velocities (0.392, 0.471, and 0.549 m/s) and sliding distances (188, 254, and 376 m) by applying normal loads of 5, 10, 15, and 20 N using pin-on-disc wear testing machine. The specific wear rate, wear loss, and coefficient of friction were plotted against the normal load and sliding distance at all sliding velocities. The results reveal that incorporation of date palm leaf fibers leads to significant improvement in the wear resistance of composites up to optimum fiber content and then decreases as fiber content increases. Further, it is found that surface modification has significant effect on wear performance. Worn surfaces of some selected samples were studied by scanning electron microscopy to analyze the wear mechanism.

Effect of chemically modified date palm leaf fiber on mechanical, thermal and rheological properties of polyvinylpyrrolidone

Polyvinylpyrrolidone/date palm leaf fiber (PVP/DPL) biocomposites were prepared by melt mixing fabrication technique with different weight percentage of fibers. DPL fibers were chemically modified by acrylic acid in order to have better dispersion and compatibility with PVP matrix. The interaction of DPL fibers with PVP matrix was studied by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) was used for the study the morphology of chemically modified DPL fibers and PVP/DPL biocomposites. Mechanical properties were improved with fiber loading due to strong interfacial adhesion between PVP and DPL fibers. The storage modulus, loss modulus and tan delta values of PVA/DPL biocomposites were measured by DMTA. The rheological properties were investigated to study the shearing storage and loss modulii along with complex viscosity of biocomposites. The thermal and conducting properties of biocomposites were measured and compared with that of virgin PVP.

Solid Particle Erosion of Date Palm Leaf Fiber Reinforced Polyvinyl Alcohol Composites

Solid particle erosion behavior of short date palm leaf (DPL) fiber reinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite has been studied using silica sand particles (200 ± 50 μm) as an erodent at different impingement angles (15–90°) and impact velocities (48–109 m/s). The influence of fiber content (wt% of DPL fiber) on erosion rate of PVA/DPL composite has also been investigated. The neat PVA shows maximum erosion rate at 30° impingement angle whereas PVA/DPL composites exhibit maximum erosion rate at 45° impingement angle irrespective of fiber loading showing semiductile behavior. The erosion efficiency of PVA and its composites varies from 0.735 to 16.289% for different impact velocities studied. The eroded surfaces were observed under scanning electron microscope (SEM) to understand the erosion mechanism.

Performance measurement due to IT adoption

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis on the relationship between information technology (IT) adoption and its usage and firm performance (banking and software firm) in India. Firm performance was measured with the help of three important variables: efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Each one of the above has been described with a set of pretested questionnaires. Banks in India, in particular are geared for comprehensive banking solutions with extensive branch networks. Result from statistical analysis was validated with that achieved from ANN modeling. Design/methodology/approach – Survey instrument was pilot tested. The pilot survey was administered to 20 randomly selected Indian service firms, whose Standard Industrial Classification codes were 6,021 (nationalized commercial Banks) and 7,371 (software firms). A 50 percent response rate was received. Internal reliability using Cronbach’s α was carried out for the entire set of responses from the pilot study. In addition,...

Performance of Indian Service Industries Due to IT Adoption

This research develops principles for an evaluation criterion of the performance of a service firm. The aim of this article is to provide an analysis on the relationship between information technology (IT) adoption and its usage and firm performance (banking and software firm) in India. Firm performance was measured with the help of three important variables: efficiency, effectiveness and profitability. Each one of the above has been described with a set of pretested questionnaires. Banks in India in particular are geared for comprehensive banking solutions with extensive branch networks. The result from statistical analysis was validated with that achieved from artificial neural network (ANN) modelling.

An Experimental Study on Natural Convection Biomass Dryer with Different Sensible Heat Storage Materials

The state Odisha of India is mainly an agro based state and maximum percentage of population of the state depends on cultivation. Rice is the main cultivation crop here. Post harvesting losses are more due to lack of proper knowledge of farmers. Farmers used to dry paddy with open solar drying technique before storing. The main problem in this technique is that there is no control in the amount of heat transferred to the items which gradually leads to cracking of grains. One of the best possible solution is to dry the grain by using biomass grain dryer. In the present research work, an efficient and effective biomass burner with fins is designed and fabricated at SOA University in city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha to dry the paddy by using sensible heat storage materials. Two different sensible heat storage materials pebble and concrete have been used to dry 10 kg of paddy in a batch wise drying process. The average moisture content of fresh paddy of 29.2% was dried to 14.8% in 240 minutes by using pebbles and by using concrete time taken to reach desire moisture content is in 210 min. The time taken by this process is less than the conventional drying without storage materials. The temperature near the paddy tray was maintained in a range of 50– 58 °C which is a comfortable temperature for paddy drying. The efficiency of the dryer with pebbles and concrete also calculated and better efficiency is observed with concrete as sensible heat storage material.

Influence of multi-transverse crack on cantilever shaft

Analysis of transversely loaded cantilever shaft having multiple cracks is investigated in this paper. The behavior of cracks locations and sizes on vibration parameters is presented taking the advantage of reduction in stiffness of shaft from fracture mechanics. The shaft is subjected to static axial and bending load for given angle of twist along its longitudinal direction. Using the principle strain energy release rate and stress intensity factor (for plain stress and strain condition), the natural frequencies with their mode shapes at different crack locations with its depths are evaluated. The result obtained from theoretical method has been verified with the advantage of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) using the modal parameter of cracked shaft. The vibration parameters such as first three non-dimensional natural frequencies with their mode shapes at different locations and depths are supplied to ANFIS to optimize the results. The crack location and size predicted from ANFIS model are verified with the theoretical data with acceptable error. The surface plot, residual error, and probability plot obtained from ANFIS are showing the effectiveness of theoretical method. Research work has been extended to set up an experimental model to strengthen both theoretical and ANFIS work.The paper basically focused on error percentage obtained from the theoretical result with ANFIS and experimental work. It is found that the error percentage in ANFIS and experimental analysis are ±2% and ±7.33% respectively with respect to theoretical analysis. The present method is simple and can be easily extended to complex structure with different orientation of multiple cracks for any structural analysis.

Design and Development of V-Grooved Natural Convection Solar Air Heater for Odisha

This paper presents an experimental study of natural convection V-grooved solar heater. Based on the experimental study, the first law and second law efficiencies and entropy generation have been calculated considering the available radiation under the meteorological conditions of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Experiments were conducted during the month of November 2014 to March, 2015 for studying the performance characteristics of the solar air heater. The results obtained are quite significant with respect to outlet air temperature as compared to other solar heaters. The maximum air heater efficiency was found to be 16.91%, calculated at a mass flow rate of 3.55 gm/s of air and the second law efficiency was 6.72%.

Investigation of Engineering Properties of Paddy Grown in the Coastal Climate of Eastern India

The objective of the present study is to investigate the engineering properties of paddy (One-thousand-one) grown in the coastal region of Odisha (India). The average length, width and thickness of paddy are measured as 8.80 mm, 2.65 mm and 1.91 mm respectively at moisture content of 28% (wb). The mean bulk density and true density of the particular variety of paddy are measured to be 0.61 g/cc and 1.47 g/cc. Properties like equivalent diameter, sphericity, grain volume, grain surface area, aspect ratio and porosity are calculated to be 3.58 mm, 0.40, 24.00 mm3, 35.66 mm2, 0.30, 58.24% respectively. The angle of repose and angle of friction of the paddy grains are determined to be 37.73o and 0.43o, 0.25o, 0.30o with plywood, glass and galvanized iron respectively. These engineering properties are useful in design of forced convection dryer for the drying and processing of paddy.