iosr-JMCE   Volume-11 ~ Issue-4 ~ July-Aug 2014

Abstract: In the présent investigation an attempt has been made to investigate and study the mechanical properties of of Al - 4.5wt. % Cu Alloy reinforced with Fly ash and Silicon Carbide metal matrix composites produced by stir cast technique. In this study Al - 4.5wt. % Cu Alloy was considered as the base matrix to which Fly ash and SiC particulates were used as reinforcements. 3 wt. % of SiC and 3 wt. % of Fly Ash was added to the base matrix. In the preparation of the hybrid composite the reinforcements namely Fly Ash and SiC were preheated to a temperature of 400 degree Celsius and dispersed in two steps into the vortex of molten Al-4.5 wt. % Cu alloy. To improve the wettability 0.6 wt. % of Mg was added into the molten metal. The Microstructural study was carried out using optical microscopy which resulted in uniform distribution of reinforced particles in matrix alloy.,

[1]. Balasubramanian,R, Maheshwaran, Effect of inclusion of SiC particulates on the mechanical resistance behavior of stir cast AA6063/ SiC composites, Materials and Design 65, 2015, 511-520.
[2]. Vijay kumar S Maga, S Motagi, A study on Mechnical Properties of Aluminium alloy (Lm6) reinforced with Fly ash, Red mud and Silicon carbide, Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering Volume 11, Oct 2014, 7 – 16.
[3]. Rajendra kumar kushwaha,Sihail ahmad siddiqui, Characterization Al-4.5% Cu Alloy and Study of Wear Resistance, International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology, Volume No 3, Issue No 3, 263-266.
[4]. Qiurong Yang, Jinxu Liu, Shukui Li, Fuchi Wang, and Tengteng Wu, Fabrication and Mechanical properties of Cu- coated woven carbon fibers reinforced aluminium alloy composite, Materials and Design, 57,2014,442-448.
[5]. Viney Kumar, Rahul Dev. Gupta, and N K Batra, Comparison of Mechanical Properties and effect of sliding velocity on wear properties of Al 6061, Mg 4%, Fly ash and Al 6061, Mg 4%, Graphite 4%, Fly ash Hybrid Metal matrix composite.
[6]. T. Rajmohan, K. Palanikumar, and S. Ranganathan, Evaluation of mechanical and wear properties of hybrid aluminium matrix composites, Trans. Nonferrous Met. Soc. China, 23, 2013, 2509 – 2517.

Abstract: The conversion of hydraulic energy into mechanical energy takes place in hydraulic turbines. Further this energy is converted to electrical energy with the help of generators and then supplied to consumer. With increasing demand, efficiency of every machine plays vital role. When water is stored at very high head, hydraulic energy can be converted efficiently into mechanical energy with the help of Pelton turbine. The performance of Pelton turbine at designed and off-design points is important. Performance of turbo-machines is generally evaluated before installation with the help of model testing at designed and off design regimes.

[1]. V.V. Barlit, P. Krishnamachar, M.M. Deshmukh, Adarsh Swaroop and V.K. Gehlot, Hydraulic turbines- volume I and II (MACT, Bhopal, 1983.)
[2]. P.N. Modi and S.M. Seth, Hydraulics and fluid mechanics including hydraulic machines (Standard Book House, Delhi, 2011) [3]. J. Lal, Hydraulic machines including fluidics (Metropolitan Book Company. New Delhi, 2007)
[4]. J.D. Desai, V.A Soni, V.K Chauhan, S.S Charania and K.C Patel, Evaluation of twin jet Pelton turbine using CFD, Proceedings of Thirty Ninth National Conference on Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power, Gujarat, India, 2012, 194-197.
[5]. V Gupta, V Prasad and R Khare, Numerical modeling for hydro energy convertor: Impulse turbine, Proceedings of International Conference on Global Scenario in Energy & Environment, Bhopal, India 2013.

Abstract: In this paper, the impact of changing the location of the tool point, on the moving platform, on the dynamics of a planar parallel manipulator is investigated. Lagrange-d'Alembert formulation is used to develop the dynamic model of the present manipulator. To evaluate the dynamic performance of the parallel manipulator, the input efforts and energy consumptions are calculated for the manipulator when the end-effector is positioned at different locations on the moving platform and executing given desired trajectories. The manipulator's dimensions and parameters are kept the same during the optimization process and only the position of the tool-point on the moving platform is changed. The dynamic performance of the manipulator is then evaluated and optimized.

[1] C. Gosselin, L. Perrault, and C. Viallancourt, Simulation and computer-aided kinematic design of three-degree-of-freedom spherical parallel manipulator, Journal of Robotic Systems, 12, 1995, 857 – 869.
[2] J. P. Merlet, Jacobian, manipulability, condition number, and accuracy of parallel robots, ASME J. Mech. Des. 128, 2005, 199-206.
[3] Y. Li and M.B. Gary, Are Parallel Manipulators More Energy Efficient? Proceedings of 2001 IEEE International Symposium on computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation, Banff, Alberta, Canada, 2001, 41-46.
[4] M. Pellicciari, G. Berselli, F. Leali, and A. Vergnano, "A method for reducing the energy consumption of pick and place industrial robots," Mechatronics, 23(3), 2013, 326-334.
[5] R.F. Abo-Shanab, Effect of changing the position of tool point on the moving platform on the kinematics of a 3RRR Planar Parallel Manipulator, Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 541-542, 2014, 792-797.
[6] W.Q.D. Do and D.C.H. Yang, Inverse Dynamic analysis and simulation of a platform type of a robot, Journal of Robotic Systems, 5(3), 1988, 209-227.

Abstract: Conventional building material like cement is both resource and energy-intensive material. Production of cement also emits CO2 in atmosphere. In order to decrease this environmental pollution and cost of conventional building materials, alternative materials like fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag, metakaolin, rice husk ash (RHA) and silica fume is used because of their pozzolanic behavior. RHA which contains high silica content produced by controlled incineration of rice husk can be used as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in concrete production since it exhibits high pozzolanic characteristics and contributes to strength and impermeability of concrete. This paper presents an overview of the work carried out on the use of RHA as partial replacement of cement in concrete and its effect on workability, compressive strength and chloride permeability of concrete.

[1] Ha Thanh Le, Sang Thanh Nguyen, and Horst-Michael Ludwig (2014) "A Study on High Performance Fine-Grained Concrete Containing Rice Husk Ash" International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials, Vol.8, No.4, pp.301–307.
[2] J. H. S. Rego, A. A. Nepomuceno, E. P. Figueiredo, N. P. Hasparykand and L. D. Borges (2014) "Effect of Particle Size of Residual Rice-Husk Ash in Consumption of Ca(OH)2" ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering.
[3] Viet-Thien-An Van, Christiane Robler, Danh-Dai Bui and Horst-Michael Ludwig (2014) "Rice Husk Ash As Both Pozzolanic Admixture And Internal Curing Agent In Ultra- High Performance Concrete" Journal of Cement & Concrete Composites 53, Pg no. 270-278.
[4] A. Muthadhi and S. Kothandaraman (2013) "Experimental Investigations of Performance Characteristics of Rice Husk Ash–Blended Concrete" ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, Vol. 25, No. 8.

Abstract: A study of the addition different weight percentages of strontium and its influence on the mechanical properties and microstructure of Aluminum LM6 modified by (0.01, 0.02, 0.5) wt% strontium (Sr) was conducted, with the purpose of evaluating the properties of particulate silicon carbide (Sic), as reinforcement as well as the effect of a high Sr content. The obtained results indicated that addition of Al-10Sr improves the UTS and hardness of Aluminum and composite. Moreover, it is observed that adding Sr to the Al–SiC composite increased the amount of α-Al. The mechanical properties of the composite can be related to the volume fraction of dendritic α-Al, which can improve the mechanical properties of Aluminum or Al-Sic composite. it is concluded that the tensile for the composite did not increase dramatically because of weak interface between particles and matrix decrease the UTS, on the other hand strong interface between particles or fibers in the matrix show high stiffness and strength but typically a low resistance to fracture. Before tensile testing, heat treatment should apply to the samples to increase the ductility and ultimately UTS. In this research, a scanning electron microscope equipped with EDS is used to define the modification effects on microstructure and as result, on mechanical properties.

Keywords- AL-SiC composite; Stir casting; Sand casting; Modifier; LM6.

[1]. anett kósa, zoltán gácsi, jenő dúl, effects of strontium on the microstructure of al-si casting alloys. Materials Science and Engineering, 37/2, 2012, 43.
[2]. Lashgari, H. R., Emamy, M., Razaghian, a., & Najimi, a.The effect of strontium on the microstructure, porosity and tensile properties of A356–10%B4C cast composite. Materials Science and Engineering, 517(1-2), 2009, 170
[3]. Li, R., Pan, F., Jiang, B., Yin, H., & Liu, T. Effects of yttrium and strontium additions on as-cast microstructure of Mg-14Li-1Al alloys. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 21(4), 2011, 778
[4]. Ozben, T., Kilickap, E., & Çakır, O. Investigation of mechanical and machinability properties of SiC particle reinforced Al-MMC. Journal of Materials Processing Technology. Elsevier. 198(1-3), 2008, 220

Abstract: The ever increasing fuel costs and automobile emissions have called for attention of the automotive fuel economy and the climatic changes evidenced nowadays. The use of alternative materials such as aluminum, magnesium and polymer matrix composites (PMCs) instead of steel is sought to reduce weight of the vehicle, but they face technical and economic hurdles which limit the possible elaborate advancements in such light-weight materials. The concept of reducing the resultant downward force by using aerodynamic lift is being studied in the present work.

[1] Anup Bandivadekar, Kristian Bodek, Lynette Cheah, Christopher Evans, Tiffany Groode, John Heywood, Emmanuel Kasseris, Matthew Kromer, Malcolm Weiss ,"On the Road in 2035: Reducing Transportation's Petroleum Consumption and GHG Emissions", Laboratory for Energy and the Environment Report No. LFEE 2008-05 RP © 2008, Massachusetts Institute of Technology July 2008.
[2] AlexyVdovin "Investigation of Aerodynamic Resistance of Rotating Wheels on Passenger Cars", Department of Applied Mechanics CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Gothenburg, Sweden, 2013.
[3] Sanisa Krajnovic and Lars Davidson ,"Exploring the flow around a simplified bus with large eddy simulation and topological tools", Department of Thermo and Fluid dynamics, Chalmers University of technology published in "The aerodynamics of heavy vehicles: Trucks, Busses and Trains", Monterey-Pacific Grove, California, USA, 2002.
[4] CHRISTOFFER HÅKANSSON and MALIN J. LENNGREN ,"CFD Analysis of Aerodynamic Trailer Devices for Drag Reduction of Heavy Duty Trucks", Master's Thesis in the Master's program Automotive Engineering, Department of Applied Mechanics, Division of Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems, CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY.

Abstract: This project utilizes the Microsoft Excel Software to display the graphical representation of (profile) that shows the relationship between the ratio of belt tension and the lap angle. This work (experiment) was carried out in the mechanics laboratory to investigate the ratio of belt tensions when a rope passes over a flat pulley with a la angle of 1800 and also to determine the coefficient of friction between the mild steel surface of the pulley and the cutting rope. Further investigation was also done on the variation in the ratio of belt tensions with; change of lap angles and also a change of groove angles. At the end of the investigation, it was discovered that; the ratio of the belt tensions gradually reduced over a constant lap angle of π in position on the wall plate. It was also verified that, the ratio of the belt tensions increases with variation in the lap and groove angles while the load, T, was kept constant on the slack side hanger. Keywords: Rope-belt, Friction, Tension.

[1]. Ahaway, Stephen W (1999): The Mechanics of Friction in Rope, Tudor Times Ayer Publishing, dorth dakota.
[2]. Mann, Herman (2005): Belt friction, Ruhur University. http://www.esrruhur.nibochum.de/rt1/currentcourse/node57.html.
[3]. Durowoju M.O, Sangotayo E.O, Orowole I.A; Performance Evaluation of friction Belt Apparatus Using Indigenous Materials: International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER).
[4]. Chandoo (2010) Couloumb belt friction; Missori University of Science and Technology.
[5]. Belt tension theory (2010) CKIT – The Bulk Materials Handling knowledgebase.

Abstract: This project work deals with the design and fabrication of a pedal powered hacksaw cutting machine. The aim of this work is to develop a modernized and less stressful operation for cutting wood, metals and plastic materials. It is very useful for cutting PVC materials (pipes) and can be used widely in lather and in furniture making industries. This work can also serve as an exercising machine for fitness while cutting, it uses the principle of a slider crank mechanism which converts the rotary motion of the flywheel to the reciprocating motion of the hacksaw during pedaling.

[1]. David Gooden Wilson "Understanding Pedal Power" ISBN: 0 – 86619 – 268 – 9 (C) 1986.
[2]. E.J. Yerxa Taylor and Francis "Occupational Science: A new Source if power for Participants in Occupational Therapy" – Journal of Occupational Science ISSN/442 – 7591 – Volume: 13, Issue 1, April 1993 Pp 254 – 259.
[3]. Jon Leary "Putting Research into Practice: from a Steel City Drawing Board to the Heart of the Maya". The University of SHEFFIELD – EWB – UK National Research Conference 2010, 19th February, 2010.
[4]. Khurmi R.S and Gupta J.K. (2004), Machine Design, 4th Edition.
[5]. Eugene, A.A., THEODORE B (1996) Mechanical Engineering Research Publication, McGraw Hill.
[6]. McCullogh, James C. (ed). Pedal power, Rodale Press. Emmaue, Pennsylvania, 1977.

Abstract: The heat transfer enhancement on different helical rifled tubes have been investigated using a commercial CFD tool. Performance of geometry of the tube was studied by varying its influencing geometrical parameter like height of rifling, length of pitch of rifling for a particular length. The effects of the different geometry such as plane, circular, rectangular, and triangular geometry and heat transfer were determined for flow through tube heat exchanger. The change in the geometrical shape gave substantial change in the heat transfer rate. The result reveals the effect of geometrical shape on heat transfer rate. The results showed that the heat transfer increased when compared with existing inner plane walled water tubes. Keywords:Boiler tube, Heat transfer enhancement, helical rifled tube, CFD Analysis.

[1]. P. Naphon, and S. Wongwises, A review of flow and heat transfer characteristics in curved tubes, Renewable Sustainable Energy Review, 2006, 10 463-90.
[2]. S. Rainieri, F. Bozzoli, L. Schiavi, and G. Pagliarini, Numerical analysis of convective heat transfer enhancement in swirl tubes, International Journal of Numerical Method for Heat, 21 (5), 2011, 559-71.
[3]. S. Rainieri and G. Pagliarini, Convective heat transfer to temperature dependent property fluids in the entry region of corrugated tubes, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 45, 2002, 4525–36
[4]. S. Rainieri, A. Farina, and G. Pagliarini, Experimental investigation of heat transfer and pressure drop augmentation for laminar flow in spirally enhanced tubes,Proc. 2nd European Thermal-Sciences and 14th UIT National Heat Transfer Conference, Rome, 1996 1 203–9.
[5]. G.D. Zarnett,&M.E. Charles, Concurrent gas-liquid flow in horizontal tubes with internal spiral ribs. The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol. 47, 1969, pp. 238- 241.

Abstract: In the Chaar-Ghare village of Chapagaun, Lalitpur, Nepal, furrow irrigation is a primary source of water for growing crops. A study was conducted in order to know the economic viability of surface (furrow) and sprinkler irrigation during the period of 2013-2014 in Chaar-Ghare, ChapagaunVillage Development Committee (VDC), Lalitpur. A topographic survey of Chaar-Ghare area was conducted. The crops Solanumly copersicum (tomato), Alliumcepa (onion), Allium sativum (garlic), Zeamays (corn) were chosen for economic analysis. The case of water requirement was analyzed in three scenario of optimistic, pessimistic and normal in the significant level of 5% with the hydrological parameters, which were normally distributed. It was found that the lowest water requirement was for Zeamays (17400 cu. m) and Alliumcepa (32375cu. m) and the next was Allium sativum (33135 cu.m).The highest water requirement was for Solanumly copersicum with water requirement of 210345cu. m. The study concluded that sprinkler irrigation was almost one and half fold economical than the furrowirrigation.

Key words: Chaar-Ghare, Furrow Irrigation, Sprinkler Irrigation,Water Requirement, and Economic Return

[1]. Al-Jamal, M.S., Ball,S., Sammis,T.W., 2001. Comparison of sprinkler, trickle and furrow irrigation efficiencies for Allium Cepa production. Agric. Water Manage. 46:253-266.
[2]. Armon, R., Gold,D.,Brodsky,M.,Oron,G., 2002. Surface and subsurface irrigation with effluents of different qualities and presence of cryptosporidium oocysts in soil and on crops. Water Science & Technology 46 (3): 115–122.
[3]. Bassoi, L.H., Hopmans, J.W.,de C. Jorge, L.A., de Alencar, C.M.,Silva,J., 2003. Grapevine root distribution in drip and microsprinkler irrigation. Sci. Agric. (Piracicaba, Braz.) 60:377-387.
[4]. Bekele, S.,Tilahun,K., 2007.Regulated deficit irrigation scheduling of Allium cepa in a semiarid region of Ethiopia. Agric. Water Manage. 89:148-152.
[5]. Bogle, C.R., Hartz, T.K., Nunez, C., 1989.Comparison of subsurface trickle and furrow irrigation on plasticmulched and bare soil for Solanumlycopersicumproduction.J. Am. Soc. Hort. Sci. 114 (1)
[6]. Bozkurt, Y., Yazar, A., Gencel, B., Sezen, M.S., 2006. Optimum lateral spacing for drip-irrigated Zea mays in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey. Agriculture Water Management 85:113-120.