Faculty Publications
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Publications by NITK Faculty
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Item Algorithmic approach for strategic cell tower placement(IEEE Computer Society help@computer.org, 2015) Kashyap, R.; Bhuvan, B.M.; Chamarti, S.; Bhat, T.; Jothish, M.; Annappa, B.The increasing number of cell phone users and the usage of cell phones in remote areas have demanded the network service providers to increase their coverage and extend it to all places. Cost of placing a cell tower depends on the height and location, and as it can be very expensive, they have to be placed strategically to minimize the cost. The research aims to find a simple implementable algorithm which effectively determines the strategic positions of the cell towers. Given a satellite image and population density, and obtaining topographical information from GIS (Geographic Information Systems), potential tower locations can be determined. Applying the proposed three stage algorithm, out of many potential tower locations only the indispensible and optimal locations can be chosen. In addition, this algorithm helps to find out the optimal height of the tower at a chosen potential tower location. Hence, the proposal will provide cost-effective way for tower placement specifying their optimal position and height to cover any area and population. © 2014 IEEE.Item Microwave-assisted batch synthesis of Pongamia biodiesel(2010) Venkatesh Kamath, H.; Iyyaswami, I.; Saidutta, M.B.Background: The major bottleneck of biodiesel synthesis is its cost and this is mainly attributed to the feedstock material. Pongamia pinnata oil is a nonedible oil that is available in plenty in India and has negligible applications. Several methods of synthesis have been established, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. Results & discussion: Biodiesel from high-free fatty acid, nonedible, Pongamia oil was synthesized under microwave irradiation with single- and two-step methods. Experimental investigations showed that although the single-step method had a high yield (80%), the acid value of biodiesel was quite high. Hence, the two-step method seems to be a better approach as it yielded 90%, with 1:10 oil:methanol molar ratio and 1 wt% KOH. Along with a decrease in the reaction time to 4-5 min, separation time was also decreased by at least 90%. A conventional heating method was employed to compare the effects of microwave irradiation on biodiesel synthesis. Conclusion: The results indicate significant improvement in the yield, reaction time and processing time of biodiesel under microwave irradiation. The synthesis of Pongamia biodiesel under microwave irradiation could perhaps lead to cost effective and faster technology in countries such as India. © 2010 Future Science Ltd.Item Design and fabrication of optimized magnetic roller for permanent roll magnetic separator (PRMS): Finite element method magnetics (FEMM) approach(Elsevier B.V., 2021) Mohanraj, G.T.; Rahman, M.R.; Joladarashi, S.; Hanumanthappa, H.; Shanmugam, B.K.; Vardhan, H.; Rabbani, S.A.In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop a PRMS in a cost effective and environmental friendly way through FEMM analysis of magnetic roller (active part of PRMS). The FEMM analysis indicates that, the optimized magnetic roller having magnet-to-steel disk thickness ratio of 5 mm: 2.5 mm was proved to be gainful in beneficiating paramagnetic minerals due to the best magnetic field value from the roller surface that is, 0.89 to 2.59 T. Prediction analysis was performed on FEMM data using artificial neural network (ANN) modelling technique. Further, the design calculations of lab scale PRMS in terms of power requirements and belt tensions were addressed. The fabricated PRMS was tested on paramagnetic mineral (hematite ore) assayed 51.24% of Fe, 10.20% of SiO2, and 2.98% of Al2O3 for different roller speeds and the belt thickness. The result showed that, at 0.5 mm belt thickness with 180 rpm roller speed the fabricated lab scale PRMS works well in terms of improvement in the Fe content up to 59.5% at the concentrate along with the Fe recovery of 71.41%. The obtained results suggest that, the FEMM analysis is more suitable to optimize the effective magnetic roller for the PRMS. © 2021 The Society of Powder Technology JapanItem Thermo-hydraulic and exergetic performance of a cost-effective solar air heater: CFD and experimental study(Elsevier Ltd, 2022) Nidhul, K.; Yadav, A.K.; Anish, S.; Arunachala, U.C.An experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study is carried out to investigate the impact of secondary flow strengthening the thermo-hydraulic performance of discrete multiple inclined baffles in a flat plate solar air heater (SAH) with semi-cylindrical sidewalls. Initially, for a fixed relative baffle height (Rh = 0.1), the relative baffle pitch (Rp) for continuous baffles is varied in the range of 0.6–1 to obtain the optimum baffle pitch for 6000 p. A maximum thermo-hydraulic performance of 2.69 is obtained for the gap at the trailing apex. The proposed design has a higher collector efficiency, 55–70%, compared to the ribbed rectangular SAH design exhibiting 30–55%. With lower exergy losses, the present SAH design has higher exergetic efficiency (1.5%–2.2%)than ribbed rectangular SAH (0.9%–1.7%) for the range of Re studied. Further, at low Re, the present SAH design has a higher coefficient of performance, indicating that it is cost-effective than ribbed rectangular SAH designs. © 2021 Elsevier LtdItem Fabrication of 1T VS2 Electrode-Based In-Plane Micro-Supercapacitor Using a Cost-Effective Mask-Assisted Printing Technique(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2023) Mandal, A.; Yadav, A.K.; Pandey, S.K.; Chakrabarti, S.Vanadium disulfide (VS2) is an important member of the transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) family, which offers high conductivity. In nature, it can exist in two phases, i.e., 1T and 2H. Herein, the metallic 1T VS2-based in-plane micro-supercapacitor (MSC) is fabricated by a facile-mask-assisted printing technique. Initially, the 1T VS2 nanosheets are synthesized using a simple one-pot hydrothermal route. The material characterizations have claimed the formation of a 1T phase and the density of states (DOS) reveal that the 1T phase of VS2 is metallic in nature. After experimental and theoretical investigations of synthesized nanosheets, a VS2 electrode-based in-plane MSC is fabricated using a simple mask-assisted printing technique. The fabricated device demonstrates excellent capacitance retention of 97.6% after 1000 cycles of cyclic voltammetry measurement at a 100 mV s−1 scan rate. The device also shows an excellent areal capacitance of 212.7 mF cm−2 and a high areal energy density of 10.63 μWh cm−2 at a high-power density of 4.45 mW cm−2. This low-cost and simple fabrication process can produce high-performance in-plane MSC devices. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.Item Flexible and cost effective CNT coated cotton fabric for CO gas sensing application(Elsevier B.V., 2023) D.s, A.K.; Chauhan, S.S.; Krishnamoorthy, K.; P, D.B.; Bharathi, K.D.; Ravikumar, A.; Rahman, M.R.In this paper, a low-cost and room temperature flexible carbon monoxide (CO) gas sensor is presented using multi-walled carbon nanotubes coated cotton fabric. A dip and drying method is used to fabricate a lightweight, and high-performance fabric based CO gas sensor using different concentrations of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is utilized for examining the deagglomeration of MWCNTs in the presence of a sufficient amount of surfactant. The field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) is used to evaluate the formation of a uniform network of MWCNTs on the cotton fabric. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is used to confirm the presence of functional groups which plays an important role in CO gas sensing. The fabricated cotton fabric coated with MWCNTs (CCM) sensors are tested with different concentrations of CO gas ranging from 25 ppm to 100 ppm at room temperature. It is found that in comparison to all other sensors, the CCM sensor coated with the higher concentration of MWCNTs (0.5 mg/ml) shows a maximum response of 9.11 % at 25 ppm and 15.2 % at 100 ppm concentration of CO gas respectively. The CCM 4 sensor shows the fastest response and recovery within 49s for 25–100 ppm of CO gas. Moreover, the fabricated CCM sensor exhibited good repeatability, reproducibility, and selectivity. These sensors are suitable for low-cost smart textile applications. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.Item A framework for low cost, ubiquitous and interactive smart refrigerator(Springer, 2024) Mundody, S.; Guddeti, R.M.R.Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies are essential in developing innovative environments and intelligent applications. IoT and AI-enabled appliances are entering our kitchens, adding more comfort and usability. However, these appliances are not economical and are beyond the reach of a commoner with a moderate income. An intelligent fridge is one such appliance. This paper proposes a design for developing a cost-effective, ubiquitous, and intelligent refrigerator. Unlike existing approaches, the proposed method identifies and predicts the fridge items based on Night Vision images and provides minimal natural language interaction with the fridge. The proposed design aims to convert any standard refrigerator into its more intelligent counterpart with minimal hardware and software requirements. The design allows users to view fridge contents on the go using a mobile application and interact with it using natural language. The transfer learning technique enables us to use a YOLOv5n model for object detection. As there are no publicly available Night Vision image datasets of fridge items, we created a custom dataset of Night Vision images to train and validate the object recognition model. Our model for object detection achieved a mAP of 97.1% compared to the YOLOv3-tiny and YOLOv4-tiny models, whose mAP are 94.8% and 96.3%, respectively. The overall cost of the refrigerator after deployment of the module is less than $300, making it an affordable option. The proposed framework meets most of the requirements of a low-cost, ubiquitous, interactive smart refrigerator. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.Item Impact of ply stacking sequence on the mechanical response of hybrid Jute-Banana fiber phenoplast composites(Institute of Physics, 2024) Maruthi Prashanth, B.H.; Ramesh, S.; Shivakumar Gouda, P.S.S.; Naik, G.M.; Sharma, P.; Jagadeesh, C.; Mahantesh, M.M.; Anne, G.Natural fiber composites are increasingly gaining popularity as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic fibers. Incorporating a variety of fibers enhances mechanical properties. The arrangement of fibers plays a crucial role in determining the mechanical characteristics of laminate composites. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to investigate how the stacking order of jute (J) and banana (B) fibers affects the mechanical behaviour of composites made from phenolic resins. Four different fiber mat stacking sequences (J/B/B/J, B/J/J/B, J/B/J/B, and J/J/B/B) were used for developing the eco-fiber composites using the heat-press technique. Several mechanical parameters were assessed, including tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength, and inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS). The experimental results indicated that the JBBJ composite exhibits superior tensile strength (46.65 MPa) and modulus (993 MPa) compared to the other composites due to the presence of high-strength jute fibers on the surface. Additionally, the flexural strength of the JBBJ composite (87.24 MPa) was found to be noteworthy. It was observed that the impact strength of jute fibers surpasses that of banana fibers. Consequently, the JBBJ composite demonstrates higher values for energy absorption (0.482 J) and impact strength (120 J m−1) compared to the other composites tested. Moreover, the JBBJ composite displays higher inter-laminar shear strength and hardness values compared to BJJB, JBJB, and JJBB by 30%, 35%, and 43%, respectively. Scanning electron microscope microphotographs reveal strong correlational fracture failure mechanisms, indicative of improved mechanical properties in the JBBJ composite. Based on the experimental results, it is evident that the JBBJ composite can be utilized in lightweight applications. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.Item Cost effective synthesis of sulfur and nitrogen co-doped graphene aerogel and application in binder free supercapacitor(American Institute of Physics, 2024) Muhiuddin, M.; Khan, A.Z.; Devi, N.A.; Bharadishettar, N.; Meti, S.; Siddique, A.B.; Bhat K, U.; Akhtar, W.; Rahman, M.R.Incorporating heteroatoms into graphene lattice results in enhanced electrical conductivity and electrochemically active sites and has significant importance in developing high-performance supercapacitors. In this study, sulfur and nitrogen co-doped graphene aerogel is synthesized via hydrothermal technique followed by a simple but effective freeze-thawing and ambient pressure drying process (referred to as SN-GA). The process requires low-cost raw materials and cost-effective equipment without the utilization of any special instrument that operates at ultra-low temperatures, under high pressure, or vacuum environment. Ammonium sulfate [(NH4)2SO4] and ethylenediamine are used as a source of sulfur and nitrogen and as a reducing agent. (NH4)2SO4 with different molarities (0, 12, 24, and 36 mM) are used to synthesize four different aerogel samples marked as GA, SN-GA1, SN-GA2, and SN-GA3. The electrode is prepared using an SN-GA2 sample, exhibiting an outstanding specific capacitance of 244 F g−1 at an applied current density of 1 A g−1 with almost 98.5% Coulomb efficiency. Furthermore, based on the SN-GA2 sample, the symmetrical supercapacitor is fabricated, displaying an energy density of 18.14 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 498.4 W kg−1. Hence, SN-GA2 renders a promising material for supercapacitor applications. © 2024 Author(s).Item Copper-catalyzed aerobic annulation of hydrazones with dienones: an efficient route to pyrazole-linked hybrid molecules(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2024) Nayak, K.H.; Jijin, R.K.; Sreelekha, M.K.; Babu, B.P.A copper-catalyzed aerobic [3 + 2] annulation reaction to access various pyrazole-bound chalcones starting from readily available and cost-effective hydrazones and dienones is reported. These pyrazole-bound chalcones were further utilized effectively to prepare a series of pyrazole-linked hybrid molecules, such as pyrazole-pyrazoline, pyrazole-aziridine, and pyrazole-pyridine hybrids by efficient simple transformations. Synthetically challenging hybrid molecules were obtained in a simple, two-step process with high atom economy under aerobic copper catalysis. © 2024 The Royal Society of Chemistry.