Faculty Publications

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Publications by NITK Faculty

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Climate indices and drought characteristics in the river catchments of Western Ghats of India
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024) Shetty, S.; Umesh, P.; Shetty, A.
The study addresses the long-term trend in rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature, and the climate indices for the river catchments located in the diverse climate of the Western Ghats of India. The dry sub-humid Chaliyar catchment and humid Kajvi catchment have shown a dramatic change in the decadal rainfall, with the decade 1950–1960 being the point of change. The monsoon rainfall has decreased in the Chaliyar and Netravati catchments and increased insignificantly in the Kajvi catchment. With the increase in mean temperature, the number of rainy days is decreasing, and intense rainfall is increasing in the pre-monsoon. The increase in minimum temperature is more severe in all three catchments, irrespective of the region’s climate. The decline in rainy days is more figurative in the humid and per-humid catchments and has seen a 16–20% decrease in R×1 day, R×3 day, and R×5 day in the past six decades with an insignificant increase in the dry sub-humid catchment. The frightful increase in warm days/nights with a decrease in cool days/nights has been alarming for the extremity of temperature in future years. The significant changes in the forest area in Chaliyar and Kajvi catchment and the increase in a built-up area in Netravati may have a decisive role in the nonseasonal variability in rainfall and temperature along with increasing greenhouse gases. In the case of meteorological drought studied using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), moderate droughts have occurred over the Chaliyar and Kajvi, and extreme droughts over the Netravati catchments with no reduction in the frequency or severity of short-duration extreme rainfall events. The geographical location of the catchment has a greater impact on the characteristics of the rainfall and meteorological drought, and these changes in the hydrological regimes of the catchment have a significant bearing on the water availability in the catchments in the future years. © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences & Polish Academy of Sciences 2023.
Effect of dry torrefaction pretreatment of the microwave-assisted catalytic pyrolysis of biomass using the machine learning approach
(Elsevier Ltd, 2022) Ramesh, R.; Suriapparao, D.V.; Sankar Rao, C.S.; Sridevi, V.; Kumar, A.
This study employs the Leave-One-Out cross-validation approach to build a machine-learning model using polynomial regression to predict pyro product yield through microwave-assisted pyrolysis of sawdust over KOH catalyst and graphite powder a susceptor. The determination of coefficient (R2) validates the developed models. All the developed models achieved a high prediction accuracy with R2 > 0.93, which signifies that the experimental values are in good agreement with the predicted one. The dependence of the catalyst loading and pretreatment temperature on dominating process parameters such as heating rate, pyrolysis temperature, susceptor thermal energy, and pyro products, namely bio-oil, biochar, and biogas, are explored. The yield of biochar is reduced; however, bio-oil and biogas are enhanced as the catalyst loading increased. On the other hand, increasing the temperature of pretreated sawdust decreased bio-oil and biogas yields while increasing biochar yields. Further, microwave conversion efficiency, and susceptor thermal energy increased with increased catalyst quantity and pretreatment temperatures of sawdust. It was observed that the average heating rate was increased by increasing the catalyst quantity while maintaining the same pyrolysis time until pretreatment temperatures of 150 °C were reached, after which the heating rate dropped due to the continuous microwave energy input to the system. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
Experimental studies on turning of discontinuously reinforced aluminium composites under dry, oil water emulsion and steam lubricated conditions using TAGUCHI's technique
(Gazi University Eti Mahallesi, 2009) Shetty, R.; Pai B, R.B.; Rao, S.S.
This paper reports on the experimental investigations carried out under dry, oil water emulsion and steam lubricated conditions in turning of DRACs. The measured results were then collected and analyzed with the help of the commercial software package MINITAB15. The experiments were planned on orthogonal arrays, made with prefixed cutting parameters and different lubricated conditions. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to check tho validity of the proposed parameters and also their percentage contributions. The results of the tests show that with proper selection of the range of cutting parameters, it is possible to obtain better performance under steam lubricated condition.
Future transition in climate extremes over Western Ghats of India based on CMIP6 models
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023) Shetty, S.; Umesh, P.; Shetty, A.
The effect of climate change on the tropical river catchments in the Western Ghats of India is studied using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-6 data (CMIP-6). Multi-model ensembles of rainfall and temperature are constructed using the Random Forest ensemble technique for bias-corrected GCMs in the near future (2014–2050) and far future (2051–2100) horizons. For the two catchments each in the southern, central, and northern Ghats, the trend in minimum and maximum temperatures, precipitation, and other indices are calculated. By 2100, dry sub-humid and humid catchments will see a higher increase in mean annual temperature than per-humid central catchments. In future decades, the warm days and nights increase by 45–50% and 40–70%, respectively, with twofold warming in the winter season. Under a climate change scenario, annual rainfall increases in Vamanapuram, Ulhas, and Purna, while Chaliyar, Netravati, and Aghanashini catchments experience a decrease in rainfall in the far future with an increase in pre-monsoon rainfall. The southern catchments are anticipated to have contrasting variations in the rainfall extremes; northern catchments face a substantial increase in very wet to extremely wet days and medium to heavy rainfall. In all catchments (excluding Vamanapuram), cumulative wet days increase with a decrease in cumulative dry days. After the mid-twenty-first century, humid to per-humid catchments encompass an increase in cool nights, whereas it disappears in dry sub-humid catchments of the Ghat. Interestingly, warming tendencies begin to slow down after 2050. This investigation can assist in comprehending the regional climate extremes in the Western Ghats to formulate better climate risk planning and adaptation strategies. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Integrated spatial and temporal variability of the system water use efficiency in a lower Baro River watershed, Ethiopia
(IWA Publishing, 2023) Befikadu, F.; Shetty, A.; Fufa, F.
The Baro Akobo River is representative of lower Baro watersheds with lost soils. Under eight landscapes, the geospatial and temporal variability of system water use efficiency (sWUE) were examined in a total area of 20,325 km2. This study used GIS, RS, Cropwat8.0, and EasyFit software. The anticipated irrigation requirement for the selected crop’s driest five months of May, February, March, January, and April was 1, 0.9, 0.78, 0.78, and 0.34 l/s/h, respectively. The sub-catchment had maximum critical test values of σ = 12.6, μ = 11.9, and γ = 0, while Sor Metu showed the smallest value of 0.80, 1.75, and 0.03. Across the watershed, the sWUE varies with runoff, with a coefficient of variation of 71%. The overall accuracy of the land cover change was 81%, the Landsat 8 images of the soil-adjusted vegetation index showed a maximum value of 0.87 and a minimum of 1.5. The normalized vegetation index ranged from a maximum of 0.58 to a minimum of 1. By 2050, the sWUE will be 10% lower temporally, but its spatial variability will be 25% higher. Therefore, soil infiltration and water storage improve, which decreases runoff and the water lost by ET and raises sWUE. © 2023 The Authors.
Investigation of mechanical properties of luffa fibre reinforced natural rubber composites: Implications of process parameters
(Elsevier Editora Ltda, 2024) Gurjar, A.K.; Kulkarni, S.M.; Joladarashi, S.; Doddamani, S.
Natural fiber-reinforced composite materials are highly beneficial due to their excellent strength-to-weight ratio, and the compression molding process is frequently used to prepare natural fiber composites. The primary objective of the present work is to optimize the process parameters of the compression molding method to prepare luffa fiber-reinforced natural rubber composite and investigate the influence of process parameters on mechanical properties. Pre-processing parameters, specifically oven-dry temperature and time, processing parameters such as soaking temperature, time, and compression pressure, and post-processing parameters, such as oven-dry temperature and time, were considered to optimize. Natural rubber in its latex phase is utilized as a matrix material, and luffa fiber is used as reinforcement. The Plackett-Burman screening design technique was employed to identify the impact of different processing parameters on the mechanical properties of the luffa fiber-reinforced natural rubber (LNR) composite, and based on Taguchi's design of experiments, several process parameters were utilized to create L27 orthogonal array and the mentioned composites prepared accordingly. The ASTM standard is followed while testing the composite samples to determine their density, shore A hardness, and tensile strength. The density of the composite is unaffected by the process parameters; however, the shore A hardness of the composite is significantly affected. All the processing parameters most significantly impacted the tensile strength of LNR composites. The optimized process parameters for preparing LNR composite are the pre-oven temperature of 65 °C and time of 150min, the soaking temperature of 75 °C and time of 5min, compression pressure of 1.5 MPa, and the post-oven dry temperature of 55 °C and time of 45min. LNR composite can absorb energy due to its rubber matrix, making it useful for high-impact applications. © 2024 The Authors
Studies on Parameters affecting Flow Behaviour of High-Concentration Ash Slurry: Effect of a Natural Drag reducing Agent on Pumping Power during Pipeline Transportation
(Springer, 2022) Senapati, S.; Mohanty, A.
During 2019–20, Indian coal-based thermal power plants produced 226.13 million tonnes of coal ash (fly ash + bottom ash) which urged for safe disposal from an environmental point of view. Though as per the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Climate Change (CC) notification dated 3rd November 2009, 100% disposal of fly ash has to be effected in dry form for gainful utilisation within 5 years of the notification, as per the report available in 2020, 83% utilisation has been effected so far. In spite of such notification, thermal power plants always prefer to provide emergency disposal of fly ash through slurry mode to take care of the eventuality of failure for disposal of fly ash in dry form. Therefore, emergency disposal through slurry is done usually in high-concentration form for which the flow behaviour of the suspension mixture requires a thorough investigation prior to its transportation. The present study aims at evaluating the flow behaviour of the concentrated fly ash–water slurry by adding small dosages of eucalyptus leaf extract as a natural drag reducing agent (DRA). The flow behaviour of the ash–water slurry was found to be non-Newtonian in nature and was quite well described by a Bingham plastic model in the slurry concentration range of 55–65% by weight. Further, it was observed that the said bio-additive dosages (0.3–1.5%, v/v) modified the flow behaviour of ash–water slurry and was able to reduce the yield stress and viscosity quite considerably with a clear indication that the pumping power requirement and hence the specific energy consumption (SEC) could be reduced substantially while transporting these huge wastes through a slurry pipeline at high solids concentration. © 2022, The Institution of Engineers (India).