Faculty Publications
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Item The combined effects of carbon/nitrogen ratio, suspended biomass, hydraulic retention time and dissolved oxygen on nutrient removal in a laboratory-scale anaerobic–anoxic–oxic activated sludge biofilm reactor(IWA Publishing, 2018) Manu, D.S.; Thalla, A.K.The current trend in sustainable development deals mainly with environmental management. There is a need for economically affordable, advanced treatment methods for the proper treatment and management of domestic wastewater containing excess nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) which can cause eutrophication. The reduction of the excess nutrient content of wastewater by appropriate technology is of much concern to the environmentalist. In the current study, a novel integrated anaerobic–anoxic–oxic activated sludge biofilm (A2O-AS-biofilm) reactor was designed and operated to improve the biological nutrient removal by varying reactor operating conditions such as carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio, suspended biomass, hydraulic retention time (HRT) and dissolved oxygen (DO). Based on various trials, it was seen that the A2O-AS-biofilm reactor achieved good removal efficiencies with regard to chemical oxygen demand (95.5%), total phosphorus (93.1%), ammonia nitrogen concentration (NH4þ-N) (98%) and total nitrogen (80%) when the reactor was maintained at C/N ratio of 4, suspended biomass of 3 to 3.5 g/L, HRT of 10 h, and DO of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/L. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of suspended and attached biofilm showed a dense structure of coccus and bacillus bacteria with the diameter ranging from 0.3 to 1.2 ?m. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy results indicated phosphorylated macromolecules and carbohydrates mix or bind with extracellular proteins in exopolysaccharides. © IWA Publishing 2018.Item Temperature-Dependent Conformational Evolution of SARS CoV-2 RNA Genome Using Network Analysis(American Chemical Society, 2021) Singh, O.; Venugopal, P.P.; Mathur, A.; Chakraborty, D.Understanding the dynamics of the SARS CoV-2 RNA genome and its dependence on temperature is necessary to fight the current COVID-19 crisis. Computationally, the handling of large data is a major challenge in the elucidation of the structures of RNA. This work presents network analysis as an important tool to see the conformational evolution and the most dominant structures of the RNA genome at six different temperatures. It effectively distinguished different communities of RNA having structural variation. It is found that at higher temperatures (348 K and above), 80% of the RNA structure is destroyed in both the SPC/E and mTIP3P water models. The thermal denaturation free energy change ??Gvalue calculated for the long-lived structure at higher temperatures of 348 and 363 K ranges from 2.58 to 2.78 kcal/mol for the SPC/E water model, which agrees well with the experimentally reported thermal denaturation free energy range of 2.874 kcal/mol of SARS CoV-NP at normal pH. At higher temperatures, the stability of RNA conformation is found to be due to the existence of non-native base pairs in the SPC/E water model. © 2021 American Chemical SocietyItem Experimental analysis and optimization of plasma spray parameters on microhardness and wear loss of Mo-Ni-Cr coated super duplex stainless steel(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2022) Gowdru Chandrashekarappa, M.; Pradeep, N.B.; Girisha, L.; Harsha, H.M.; Shettigar, A.Plasma spray coatings are one among the economic path to offer quick solutions for preventing the part (substrate) failures due to rapid wear. In the present work, Mo-Ni-Cr powder is used as a coating material on super duplex stainless steel to minimise the wear loss. The microhardness of the coating is affected by the factors (current, powder feed rate and standoff distance) of the plasma spray coating process. Taguchi method is followed for preliminary experimental plan, analysis, and to perform optimisation for maximum microhardness. The results showed that the current being the dominant effect followed by powder feed rate and standoff distance on the microhardness of coated samples. The optimised plasma spray condition resulted in the highest coating microhardness (i.e., 764.33 HV), which is 2.78 times higher than that of super duplex stainless steel (i.e., 275 HV). Taguchi experiments are conducted to know the factors (load, sliding speed and sliding distance) influence the wear loss of coated samples prepared for optimised plasma spray conditions. The applied load and sliding speed are found statistically significant, whereas the sliding distance is insignificant towards wear loss. The results of wear loss of the substrate (uncoated sample) and optimised condition of the coated sample are found equal to 18 mg, and 2.8 mg, respectively. © 2020 Engineers Australia.Item Development of Sustainable Jute/Epoxy Composite and Assessing the Effect of Rubber Crumb on Low Velocity Impact Response(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2022) Mahesh, V.; Mahesh, V.; Harursampath, D.; Joladarashi, S.; Kulkarni, S.M.In the current study, the experimental assessment of influence of rubber crumb on the low velocity impact (LVI) behavior of jute epoxy composites are carried out using two types of impactors namely hemispherical and conical. Hand layup technique is used to fabricate the proposed composites. The rubber crumb is incorporated in the epoxy resin with 1.5 wt%, 3 wt%, and 5 wt%. Results revealed that incorporation of 3 wt% of rubber crumb resulted in better LVI response compared to its counterparts. Fractography studies revealed that inclusion of rubber crumb particles enhances the adhesion between resin and fiber, thereby increasing the energy absorption. In addition, they aid in reducing damage area and increasing penetration threshold of proposed composites. The current study’s systematic technique serves as a model for the efficient use and conversion of waste rubber crumb into usable natural fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites for LVI applications. © 2022 Taylor & Francis.Item Multivariate analysis of concurrent droughts and their effects on Kharif crops—A copula-based approach(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2022) Muthuvel, D.; Mahesha, M.Apart from creating an ecological imbalance, drought events could affect an agrarian country's economy and food security by reducing crop yields. The antecedent meteorological droughts could prolong into hydrological and (or) agricultural droughts and may co-exist as concurrent droughts. The current study aims to comprehensively study Indian concurrent droughts, their effects on crop yield, and possible teleconnection with ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation), adopting a copula-based multivariate approach. The copula functions can replicate the correlation among the variables and keep the dependence structure intact. The concurrent drought characteristics are computed using a multivariate standardized drought index that incorporates the three primary drought indices using the Gaussian copula. Some of the severe concurrent drought years such as 2002, 1987, 1972, and 1965 caused considerable yield losses in Kharif season crops of groundnut, millet, and rice. This prompts to construct quad-variate models involving the crop yield and the three drought indices using the vine copulas that perform better than the elliptical and symmetric Archimedean copula. Though the isolated forms of droughts could cause mild yield losses, the probability of concurrent droughts causing high to exceptional losses is more. Further, the ENSO teleconnection with the concurrent monsoon droughts is analysed and mapped. The above-normal warming of the Nino 3.4 region over the tropical Pacific during the months leading up to the monsoon could signal concurrent monsoon droughts in the areas under the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin at a probability of around 45%. These results could be helpful in drought mitigation measures and policymaking. © 2021 Royal Meteorological Society.Item Effect of armour unit layers and placement mode in the determination of stability of geotextile sand container (GSC) breakwaters(Elsevier Ltd, 2022) Elias, T.; Geetha, T.; Shirlal, K.G.Geosynthetic Sand Containers (GSCs) are increasingly harnessed for their coastal protection capabilities. Recent studies point to its efficacy to be used even as armour units of breakwaters. The current investigation aims at understanding the effect of armour unit layers and placement modes in altering the stability of GSC breakwaters. Single-layered and double-layered GSC structures with slope parallel and perpendicular placement are tested for stability against wave conditions of the Mangaluru coast. A 1:30 scaled monochromatic wave flume model study is adopted to detail the damage levels and stability of various GSC breakwaters. It is observed that the stability of structure increased by up to 17% when supplemented with double layers. Structure tends to be stable with increasing armour units size and fill percentage. Larger bags stacked to double layers is found to be the most stable configuration. 80% filled, slope parallel placement exhibited the least stability. The paper dealt with all factors affecting structure stability and deduced stability nomograms helpful for coastal engineers to design GSC breakwaters. © 2022Item Elevated temperature erosion performance of plasma sprayed NiCrAlY/TiO2coating on MDN 420 steel substrate(Institute of Physics, 2022) Reddy G, M.S.; Prasad, C.D.; Patil, P.; Naresh, N.; Ramesh, M.R.The current study deals with the erosion behaviour of a plasma-sprayed 70% NiCrAlY + 30% TiO2 coating on MDN 420 steel substrate at extreme temperatures. The coating was characterized by using an optical microscope, Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The coating's porosity, microhardness, surface roughness, and adhesion strength were all examined. The solid particle erosion experiments were carried out at temperatures of 300 °C, 500 °C, and 700 °C, with impact angles of 30° and 90°. The tests were conducted by using the alumina as an erodent in the hot air jet erosion testing machine. The erosion volume loss of coated and uncoated samples was measured using an optical profilometer. It is observed that erosion resistance of the coating was found to be more when compared to the substrate for the different test temperatures chosen. As the temperature increases, the erosion resistance of the coating also found increased from 300 °C to 700 °C at both impact angles of 30° and 90°. The morphology of the eroded coating surface reveals that the generalized behaviour of the coating is ductile in nature. © 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.Item Probing the synergistic effects of rutin and rutin ester on the oxidative stability of sardine oil(Springer, 2022) Chandrasekar, V.; Arunachalam, S.S.; Hari, H.; Shinkar, A.; Belur, P.D.; Iyyaswami, R.Multicomponent antioxidant mixture is proved to be highly effective in imparting oxidative stability to the edible oil. It is believed that the high efficacy of those mixtures is due to the synergistic effect exhibited by two or more components. The current study aims to analyse the synergistic effect of a flavonoid and its corresponding ester in improving the oxidative stability of n-3 PUFA rich sardine oil. The oxidative stability of rutin, esterified rutin and their combinations at three different concentrations was studied in sardine oil stored at 37 ºC for 12 days in contact with air under darkness. The combination of rutin and rutin ester showed maximum reduction of 54.2% in oxidation at 100 mg/kg and 150 mg/kg. Perhaps this is the first report on the synergistic effect of a flavonoid and its lipophilized ester for improving the oxidative stability of n-3 PUFA rich oil. © 2022, Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India).Item Effect of two-parameter partial foundation and viscoelastic supports on free vibration of Terfenol-D layered functionally graded fluid conveying pipe using domain decomposition technique(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2023) Patil, M.A.; Kadoli, R.The purpose of the current research work is to investigate the free vibration control characteristics of a Terfenol-D layered functionally graded fluid-conveying pipe when subjected to partial two-parameter foundation, viscoelastic supports, and multi-span length. The integration of differential quadrature method with domain decomposition and the δ point approach, as well as Terfenol-D layer actuation with viscoelastic supports, distinguishes the current study effort. The equivalent spring stiffness for the two-parameter partial foundation is determined methodically for various elastic soil materials. The effect of varied spans with viscoelastic supports on the stability of fluid conveying pipes is also explored. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Item An Improved Noise Reduction Technique for Enhancing the Intelligibility of Sinewave Vocoded Speech: Implication in Cochlear Implants(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2023) Poluboina, V.; Pulikala, A.; Pitchaimuthu, A.N.P.A cochlear implant (CI) is the most suitable option for individuals with severe profound hearing loss. CI restores the audibility to near perfection and offers good speech understanding in quiet. However, the speech perception in noise with CIs is less optimal as most speech coding strategies of CIs encode only the temporal envelope. Besides the current CI signal coding strategies lacks sophisticated pre-processing. In the current study, we proposed a novel pre-processing method to improve speech Intelligibility in noise and tested using the acoustic simulations of cochlear implants. The proposed noise reduction technique aims to minimize the mean square error (MSE) between the temporal envelopes of the enhanced speech and its clean speech. Therefore, the proposed method will be suitable for CI applications. This paper provides an analysis of the theoretical derivation of the noise suppression function and also the performance evaluation using objective and subjective tests. The effectiveness of the proposed method was objectively evaluated using the SRMR-CI and ESTOI. Additionally, speech recognition through the acoustic simulations of the cochlear implant was done for the subjective evaluation. Performance of the proposed method was compared with the Weiner filter (WF) and sigmoidal functions. The sinewave vocoder was used to simulate the cochlear implant perception. Both objective and subjective scores revealed that the performance of the proposed technique is superior to the WF and sigmoidal function. © 2013 IEEE.