Nondestructive test of brazed cooling tubes of prototype bolometer camera housing using active infrared thermography

The active infrared thermography technique is used for assessing the brazing quality of an actively cooled bolometer camera housing developed for steady state superconducting tokamak. The housing is a circular pipe, which has circular tubes vacuum brazed on the periphery. A unique method was adopted to monitor the temperature distribution on the internal surface of the pipe. A stainless steel mirror was placed inside the pipe and the reflected IR radiations were viewed using an IR camera. The heat stimulus was given by passing hot water through the tubes and the temperature distribution was monitored during the transient phase. The thermographs showed a significant nonuniformity in the brazing with a contact area of around 51%. The thermography results were compared with the x-ray radiographs and a good match between the two was observed. Benefits of thermography over x-ray radiography testing are emphasized.     

Nitrogen deep-placement technologies for productivity, profitability, and environmental quality of rainfed lowland rice systems

The recovery of applied nitrogen by rice is low due to several loss processes operating in the ricefields. Split application of fertilizer suggested for increasing nitrogen-use efficiency is often not practical in rainfed lowland rice due to adverse soil–water situations. Hence, the entire required amount of N has to be applied in one single application when the water regime is favorable. A single broadcast application, however, increases N loss. Deep placement of urea supergranules (USG) has been proven to improve N fertilizer efficiency. The placement technology is best suited to conditions where the predominant N loss mechanism is ammonia volatilization rather than leaching or denitrification. Deep placement of USG thus has greater benefit over surface split application on soils with moderate to heavy texture, low permeability and percolation rate, and high cation exchange capacity and pH. Environments and management factors conducive to high ammonia volatilization potential would benefit most from deep-placement technology. Improved N recovery and efficiency of USG has been well-documented for lowland rice, but its market availability and methods to achieve placement pose problems. The technology has very limited adoption because USG is not commercially available or manufactured in most countries, and labor requirement is high with hand placement. Manual application creates more difficulties in handling the granules, besides taking 36–42 more hours per hectare, than 2 split broadcast applications of prilled urea. Applicators developed so far have not worked satisfactorily under standing water conditions and in direct-seeded rice conditions due to hardness of the soil. Hence, it is necessary to develop a suitable applicator to overcome these difficulties. Alternatively, for direct-seeded rice, N-fertilizers can be subsoil-banded near seedrows. The placement technology, if adopted by the farmers of the potential lowland areas in eastern India, is expected to give an additional production of 5.6 million tons of rice.     

What attributes should a project coordinator possess?

Construction projects are increasingly multidisciplinary and the role of a project coordinator has become critical for success. A clear differentiation is drawn between the roles of a project manager and a project coordinator, and the attributes required in a successful project coordinator are defined. A total of 24 such attributes were identified through a survey of available literature and personal interviews with top construction professionals based in India. A ranking has also been assigned to these attributes on the basis of a questionnaire survey. Statistical analyses of responses indicated a distinct difference between the attributes possessed by the project coordinators in projects that were considered successful, and those that were considered failures. Project coordinators of successful projects were found to excel in certain important attributes such as relationship with client, consultant and contractor; timeliness; technical knowledge of the subject; belief in team playing spirit; and coordination for achieving quality compared to their counterparts in projects which were regarded as failures. Interestingly, the required attributes remained the same for project coordinators whether they worked for the contracting agency or the owner's organisation. Factor analysis was used to group the 24 attributes into three major skills categories: team building skills; contract implementation skills; and project organisation skills. These findings will be useful to practitioners during the recruitment of project coordinators.     

Affordable housing finance companies in India: how do they ‘differently’ serve the underserved?

Abstract

Over the years, the importance of access to affordable finance has inevitably been recognized as a critical component of developing the third world. Against the backdrop of huge under-penetration of the housing finance sector in India, this study reflects on the functioning of Affordable Housing Finance Companies (AHFCs), which are among the important stakeholders providing affordable housing loans to the low-income segment households. However, the process through which these new entrants have been able to down-market housing finance remains a black box till date. In light of this research gap, this study proposes a conceptual model that succinctly captures the business process of AHFCs across three main dimensions: Outreach Approach, Lending and Underwriting Practices and Risk Management Interventions. This model reflects on the kaleidoscope of process innovations that the AHFCs have embraced to cater to the housing finance needs of the low-income customers, while achieving profitability and social impact.     

Solidification of Liquid Distributed in its Primary Matrix Phase of Al-10Cu-Fe Alloy and Their Tribological Characteristics

Solidification behavior of liquid phase entrained in its primary solid has been investigated. A hypoeutectic alloy based on Al-Cu-Fe system containing Fe and Si was thermal cycled between semisolid regions to low temperatures. The freezing characteristics of the liquid were recorded in inverse rate cooling curves. The continuous network of the liquid phase progressively changed into isolated droplets with their different size and size distribution. Such droplets revealed undercooling of the melt varying from 20 to 35 °C below the eutectic temperature of the alloy. This behavior of melt undercooling is discussed in light of independent nucleation events associated with freezing of droplets. Solidification structure of droplets revealed particulate eutectic phases in contrast to lamellar eutectic microstructure in the interdendritic region of the as-cast alloy. The droplet distribution and their solidification structure resulted in an improvement in tribological characteristics of the alloy. This effect is correlated with features of wear surfaces generated on the matting surfaces.     

Neural network prediction of fluidized bed bioreactor performance for sulfide oxidation

Sulfide oxidation rate of a fluidized bed bioreactor was predicted using ANN, with upflow velocity, hydraulic retention time, reactor operation time and pH given as input. The reactor was fed with 100mg/L synthetic sulfide wastewater after biofilm formation on nylon support particles. Feedforward neural network model was prepared using 81 data sets, of which 63 were used for training and 18 for testing in a three-way cross validation. Prediction performance of the network was evaluated by calculating the percent error of each data set and mean square error for test data set in three partitions. The mean square error for test data set was 5.55, 4.08 and 2.30 for partition 1, partition 2 and partition 3, respectively. The predicted sulfide oxidation values correlated with the experimental values and a correlation coefficient of 0.96, 0.97 and 0.98 was obtained for partition 1, partition 2 and partition 3, respectively.     

Weldability characteristics of shielded metal arc welded high strength quenched and tempered plates

High strength, quench and tempered (Q&T) plates having yield strength of a minimum of 670 MPa and conforming to SA 517 Gr. F specification were successfully developed at Rourkela Steel Plant in plates up to 40 mm thickness. The plates are used extensively for the fabrication of impellers, penstocks, excavators, dumpers, and raw material handling devices, where welding is an important processing step. SA 517 Gr. F plates, characterized by a relatively high carbon equivalent (CE: ∼0.6) and alloyed with Ni, Cr, Mo, Cu, and V, are susceptible to a crack-sensitive microstructure and cold cracking during welding. In view of the above, the present study investigated the weldability properties of 20 mm thick plates using the shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process. Implant and elastic restraint cracking (ERC) tests were carried out to assess the cold cracking resistance of the weld joint under different welding conditions. Preheat of 100 °C, partial or full rebake, and a heat input of 14.9 to 15.4 KJ/cm resulted in static fatigue limit (SFL) values well in excess of the minimum specified yield strength (MSYS) of 670 MPa and a critical restraint intensity (K _cr) value of 34,650 MPa, indicating adequate cold cracking resistance. Lamellar tear tests conducted using full thickness plates at heat input levels ranging from 9.7 to 14.4 KJ/cm and weld restraint loads (WRL) of 510 to 685 MPa showed no incidence of lamellar tear upon visual, ultrasonic, and four-section macroexamination. The weld joint, based on optimized welding parameters, exhibited adequate tensile strength (812.4 MPa) and low temperature impact toughness 88.3 and 63.4 J (9.2 and 6.6 kg-m) at −40 °C for weld metal (WM), and heat-affected zone (HAZ) properties, respectively. The crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) values of WM and HAZ (0.40 and 0.36 mm, respectively) were superior to that of the parent metal (0.29 mm), indicating adequate resistance of weld joint to brittle fracture. It was concluded that the weld joint conforms to the requirements of SA 517 Gr. F specification and ensures a high integrity of the fabricated products.     

Sliding Wear Behavior of TiC-Reinforced Cu-4 wt.% Ni Matrix Composites

The present investigation explores the effect of TiC content on the sliding wear properties of Cu-4 wt.% Ni matrix composites. Cu-4 wt.% Ni ? x wt.% TiC (x = 0, 2, 4 and 8 wt.%) metal matrix composites were developed by powder metallurgy route. Their friction and wear was studied under dry sliding at different loads of 5, 7.5 and 10 N and constant sliding speed of 2 m/s using a pin-on-disk machine. The metallographic observations showed an almost uniform distribution of TiC particles in the matrix. Hardness of the composites increased with increasing TiC content (up to 4 wt.%). Friction and wear results of TiC-reinforced composites show better wear resistance than unreinforced matrix alloy. However, the optimum wear resistance was observed for 4 wt.% TiC-reinforced composites. Worn surfaces of specimens indicated the abrasion as the primary mechanism of wear in all the materials investigated in the study. The observed behavior has been explained on the basis of (1) the hardness which results in a decrease in real area of contact in composites containing TiC particles and (2) the formation of a transfer layer of wear debris on the surface of the composites which protects underlying substrate by inhibiting metal-metal contact.     

Effects of Material Composition and Microstructural Features on Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Fe–TiC Composite and a Cobalt-Based Stellite

This investigation deals with the influence of hardfacing En31 steel separately with Fe–TiC composite and commercial cobalt base (stellite 6) material on their sliding wear behaviour at 2.94 m/s speed and varying applied pressures. Wear response of the samples was substantiated through the scanning electron microscopic studies of the wear surfaces, subsurface regions and debris particles. The hardfaced samples revealed superior wear performance than that of the substrate. Further, the steel hardfaced with cobalt-based stellite offered higher wear resistance over the one overlayed with Fe–TiC composite. The applied pressure controlled the wear behaviour (rate) in a complex manner and its influence was dependent on material composition/microconstituents and test conditions. The friction coefficient got reduced with pressure except in the case of the Fe–TiC composite overlay beyond 2 MPa. The hardfaced samples were noted to be better suited for more severe conditions. Microcracking was quite frequently observed on wear surfaces of the hardfaced material especially under mild wear conditions. Sticking of fine debris particles on to the specimen surface was also observed.